Kūkai, also known posthumously as Kohbou-Daishi (or Kōbō Daishi), was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the esoteric Shingon school of Buddhism.
He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi under the monk Huiguo. Upon returning to Japan, he founded Shingon—the Japanese branch of Vajrayana Buddhism.
Around the year 786, the Japanese Buddhist monk Kohbou-Daishi transplanted wild-growing wasabi in Mount Koya to the area surrounding the Chuzen-ji Temple.