gional warlords, those with sufficient forces, joined by religious strong-
holds in the countryside, participated actively in the wars to defend their
assets. In addition, local warriors and peasants gathered under the banner
of new populist sects, though rarely in monk robes, to fight in the name of
the Buddhist savior to oppose oppressive rule by warrior leaders during
this turmoil.
Toward the end of the sixteenth century, Japan was gradually pacified
by a few powerful warlords who, interestingly, targeted the most powerful
and independent monasteries first in their efforts to subdue the opponents to
a centralized state. The attacks on and destruction of the last monastic
strongholds of Enryakuji in 1571 and Negoroji in 1585 effectively signified
the end of the religious forces, as Japan was subsequently restructured into a
peaceful and pacified society with the establishment of the third warrior gov-
ernment, the Tokugawa bakufu. The sôhei were thus extinguished, although
some temples continued to display the martial skills of the naginata for some
time. More important, they remained a part of the cultural production of
subsequent centuries, often blamed for the decline of the imperial govern-
ment prior to 1600 by later scholars. Today, armed monks, without excep-
tion in their mythical form, still appear in popular culture both in Japan and
the United States, be it in historical dramas or animated comic books.
Mikael Adolphson
See alsoFolklore in the Martial Arts; Japan; Religion and Spiritual
Development: Japan
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