在这部鉴真大和尚动画/传记片中,公元七四二年，唐玄天宝元年，日僧荣叡与普照等人闻悉鉴真和尚的威名，特地前往扬州大明寺谒见鉴真和尚，并力邀鉴真和尚赴日传法，鉴真大和尚为东渡弘扬佛法，历经五次的失败，其中经历弟子圆寂、官府阻挠、甚至于双眼失明等等……仍然不改其志，将当时鼎盛的中国佛法与中国医药、艺术、建筑、文学等，经由水路传往日本。
鉴真和尚不仅传入戒律，以完成日本律宗一派，并且间接影响日本佛教史上两位宗师的崛起—真言的空海上人与天台宗的最澄上人，并因此开展出平安、镒仓时期日本佛教的鼎盛局面。而在文化的影响上，随大师东渡所传入的建筑、雕刻、书法、绘画、医药乃至民生日用，都让大唐文化在日本留下弥足珍贵的的丰富遗产。也就是如此，鉴真和尚更被赞为日本“天平文化的巨人”。
Nara, Japan, A.D. 763. In Toshodai Temple, Chinese Buddhist Master the Venerable Jian Zhen dies, aged 76, after nine years in Japan. His Japanese disciple Si Tuo remembers how in 733 he and another monk were sent to China to learn from Buddhist scriptures there and to try and convince Jian Zhen to come to Japan with other Chinese monks to develop and purify Buddhism in their country. After 10 years they finally get to meet Jian Zhen at Daming Temple in Yangzhou and persuade him to travel to Japan. Jian Zhen chooses 17 other Chinese monks to accompany him, but one, Ru Hai, betrays their secret mission to the Chinese authorities. Later that year, in December 743, Jian Zhen and Co. set out again but are shipwrecked off the coast of Zhejiang, where monks inform on them and they are arrested by the Chinese authorities to keep Jian Zhen in the country. Next, Jian Zhen and Co. try to cross the mountains in winter to Fuzhou and charter a ship from there, but are again caught by the ...
