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Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Prince Shotoku and His contribution towards the spread of Buddhim in Japan





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.