Sennin

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Sennin (Jap.). Immortal beings. The idea is of Chinese origin (hsien-jen), associated with religious Taoism and alchemy. With the spread of knowledge in religious Taoism among the Japanese gentry in the Nara period, the legends of Japanese sennin, like Kume no Sennin, possessing supernatural powers and riding clouds, began to appear. In Buddhism, the word sennin is one of the translations for the Sanskrit ṛṣi. En no Gyōja, the supposed founder of Shugendō, was also called a sennin.