 Kūkai returned to Japan in 806 at the age of 33. He arrived in Kyushu with a voluminous amount of sūtras, collections of mandala paintings, treatises and commentaries, books of poetry, and ritual paraphernalia. In Kyushu, he composed the Shorai mokuroku (A Memorial Presenting a List of Newly Imported Sūtras and Other Items) that gives a brief account of his activities in China, describes what distinguishes esoteric Buddhism, and lists the items he had collected and brought back to Japan. However he was not permitted to enter the capital due to political unrest and was obliged to remain in Kyushu for another three years. Only with the retirement of Emperor Heizei (r. 806–809), did the new Emperor Saga order Kūkai in 809 to move to the new capital of Kyoto to reside at Takaosan-ji, the center of the Kyoto Buddhist world, where he remained until 823. Under the patronage of the new emperor, Kūkai became appointed over the years to various administrative positions of several important official temples. This allowed him to perform the first public esoteric ritual for “nation-protection,” followed by other public esoteric ceremonies, including mass initiation rituals and the founding of an annual ritual (the Mishuhō) to be held at court, hence gaining official recognition for the efficacy of esoteric Buddhism and preparing the rise of Buddhism as an ideological force in medieval Japan.