Introduction
It is clear that
indigenous religion called Shinto has already existed in Japan before Buddhism.
But According to a historical chronicle, Buddhism was officially introduced
into Japan by a king of Paekche in 552 A.D during the time of emperor Kinmei.
After Buddhism was introduced and sent Buddhist icons and ritual objects to
Japanese court by Korean king Paekche, there were some conflict between those
acceptors and rejecters of Buddhism in Japan. On other hand, there is some
Buddhist believers had already existed before Buddhism was officially
introduced; they were Korean and Chinese immigrants, they practiced Buddhism despite
they did not claim themselves as Buddhists. The country was not politically
stable which divided into many provinces and ruled by different clans. Around
third century A.D, Yamato clan emerged as a powerful clan among them and Japan
was gradually united but still not fully unified yet. There were three clans
(Soga, Mononobe, and Nakatomi) who became powerful but lower rank to Yamato
imperial family.