244 CHAPTER TENthe worship of foreign kami had angered native kami. To appease the native
kami, they drowned the image in a canal and forced Buddhist nuns to disrobe.
When this had no apparent effect on the plague, the image was fished out of
the water and Buddhists were allowed to resume their practice.
The Sogas eventually came to dominate the imperial court, thus assuring
Buddhism's adoption as a state religion. The individual most instrumental in
this adoption was Prince Shotoku (573-622), who was later regarded as the
founder ofJapanese Buddhism (Strong EB, sec. 8.1.2). As regent for Empress
Suiko (r. 592-628), in 604 he formulated Japan's first constitution, a statement
of governing principles covering the areas of ethics, religion, and the psychol-
ogy ofleadership. The constitution combined elements from Buddhism, Con-
fucianism, and kami worship, foreshadowing the way in which these three
traditions were to function together as the national ideology for the following
millennium. Shotoku advocated the Triple Gem as the highest refuge for all
beings; only by taking refuge in it could morally crooked people be motivated
to become straight. Straightness, however, was a function of the Confucian
principle ofli (propriety), according to which one was to adhere closely to
the duties implicit in one's social position. Finally, the citizenry were called on
to continue worshiping the kami so as to keep the male and female forces of
the cosmos in balance and to ensure the proper course of the seasons.
To implement the Buddhist side of his policy, Prince Shotoku imported
Korean artisans to build temples-including the Horyii-ji, the oldest surviving
temple complex in the nation, with what are now among the oldest wooden
buildings in the world-as well as Korean monks and nuns to staff them. Three
Japanese nuns-Zenshin, Zens6, and Eizen-were sent to Paekche in 587 to
study the Vinaya. On their return in 590, they established an ordination cen-
ter for nuns. Prince Shotoku himself studied under Hye-cha, a monk from
Koguryo, and is credited with writing commentaries on a number of
Mahayana Siitras.
In bringing Buddhism to Japan, the Koreans also brought elements of Chi-
nese culture, such as the Chinese writing system, which the Japanese adopted
for their own language. Because Buddhist Siitras were all written in Chinese,
it became plain to the Japanese that they might do better to establish direct
contact with China, rather than go through Korean intermediaries. Thus
Prince Shotoku initiated diplomatic relations with the Sui court in 607 and
sent talented young monks and scholars there to study. Although his untimely
death aborted many of his policies, these contacts with China shaped the po-
litical and cultural future of Japan as a whole. On the one hand, the contacts
provided the catalyst for the emergence of a pro-Chinese, anti-Soga clan, the
Fujiwaras, who were to dominate the court up through the Heian period. On
the other hand, they set the stage for the wholesale importation of Chinese
Buddhism and other features of Chinese culture, which provided the Japanese
with models for what civilization should be. Thus, Chinese Buddhism came
to supplant the Korean models that Shotoku himself had followed.