Kegon (華厳) is the Japanese school of Buddhism that emerges from the Chinese Huayan tradition and takes the *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (Kegon-kyō, the Flower Garland or Avatamsaka Sutra) as its primary scriptural foundation. It arose in Japan during the Nara period and became one of the major Nara schools, with Tōdai-ji in Nara as its principal temple. The great bronze Buddha (Daibutsu) at Tōdai-ji represents Vairocana, the cosmic Buddha who stands at the center of Kegon’s vision of reality. From the outset, Kegon enjoyed strong imperial support and developed as a tradition of rigorous doctrinal study and ritual practice.

At the heart of Kegon thought lies the doctrine of the *dharmadhātu* (法界, hokkai), the “realm of Dharma,” understood as the totality of reality in which all things are thoroughly interconnected. This is expressed through the teaching of mutual interpenetration and non-obstruction: every phenomenon contains and reflects every other, so that each part, no matter how small, bears the imprint of the whole cosmos. Concepts such as *jijimuge* (non-obstruction among phenomena) and the vision of “the One and the Many” articulate how ultimate reality and individual things are not two separate domains but mutually inclusive aspects of a single, seamless field. Emptiness, in this context, does not negate the world but reveals how all entities lack independent essence and thus arise only through their relations with all others.

Kegon’s contemplative and philosophical practice orients the practitioner toward direct insight into this radical interdependence. By meditating on the *dharmadhātu* and the teachings of the *Avataṃsaka Sūtra*, one trains the mind to see that no phenomenon stands alone and that each moment of experience is woven into an immeasurable web of causes, conditions, and reflections. This vision of a universe centered on Vairocana Buddha, where every thing and every thought is both itself and a gateway to the whole, has exerted a profound influence on later Japanese Buddhist traditions, shaping their understanding of interdependence and the unity of all existence.