He entered the Buddhist priesthood at Gango-ji Temple where he studied vijnapti-matrata or Consciousness-only school (aka Yuishiki or wei shih, i.e. a theory that all existence is subjective and nothing exists outside of the mind) and dharmalaksana or Dharma-character school (aka Hosso or faxiang, i.e. the specific characteristics of all manifest phenomena), and founded the gokaryu-ji (literally, the five Ryu [dragon] temples) including Ryugai-ji (aka Oka-dera) Temple.
出家して元興寺に入り唯識・法相を修め、龍蓋寺（＝岡寺）などの5ヶ龍寺を創建した。