Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BUDDHISM & CHINESE INFLUENCE
When Buddhism drifted onto the shores of Japan, Kyoto was barely more than a vast, fer-
tile valley. First introduced from China in 538 via the Korean kingdom of Paekche,
Buddhism was pivotal in the evolution of the Japanese nation. It eventually brought with it
a flood of culture through literature, the arts, architecture and kanji, a system of writing in
Chinese characters. However, initial uptake of Buddhism was slow until Empress Suiko
(554-628) encouraged all Japanese to accept the new faith. Widespread temple construc-
tion was authorised and in 588, as recorded in the 8th-century
Nihon Shoki
(Chronicle of
Japan), Japan's first great temple complex, Asuka-dera, was completed.
The Japanese religion of Shintō is one of the few religions in the world to have a female sun
deity, or a female supreme deity.
Gradually the wealth and power of the temples began to pose a threat to the governing
Yamato court, prompting reforms from Prince Shōtoku (574-622), regent for Empress
Suiko. He set up the Constitution of 17 Articles, which combined ideas from Buddhism and
Confucianism to outline the acceptable behaviour of the people, and laid the guidelines for
a centralised state headed by a single ruler. He also instituted Buddhism as a state religion
and ordered the construction of more temples, including Nara's eminent Hōryū-ji (
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), the world's oldest surviving wooden structure. Another significant accomplishment
of Prince Shōtoku was the first compilation of Japanese history in 620; however, the topic
was later burned.
Reforms and bureaucratisation of government led to the establishment, in 710, of a per-
manent imperial capital, known as Heijō-kyō, in Nara, where it remained for 74 years.
The prosperous Nara period (710-94) saw further propagation of Buddhism and, by the
end of the 8th century, the Buddhist clergy had become so meddlesome that Emperor Kam-
mu decided to sever the ties between Buddhism and government by again moving the cap-
ital. He first moved it to Nagaoka (a suburb of Kyoto) in 784, but due to the assassination
of the city's principal architect, several ominous natural disasters and superstitious beliefs
regarding the location, a decade later he suddenly shifted the capital to Heian-kyō, present-
day Kyoto.
