| Abstract |
It was in 642, the first year of the reign of Empress Kogyoku, that a ceremony was held to pray to Buddha forbestowing rain, and Minister Emishi Soga precided it. This attempt, however, was no success..., and Empress Kogyoku prayed to Japanese native gods for rain, which did bring much rain on droughty fields. Here we must pay attention to the fact that the Buddhistic ceremony performed was based on the precept of the Suvarna-prabhasa The Suvarna-prabhasa is one of the sutras to expound on the protection of a nation by virtue of Buddhistic doctrine. The idea is that those nations that observe the law of this sutra can get rid of any inner or external misfortune by the backing power of the gods who defend the law of Buddhism, among whom are the Catasrah-maha rajikah (四天王) or the four heavenly guardians. Although so-called the Asuka Buddhism may be included under the category of the clan Buddhism, they used as their scripture the sacred books which were supposed to protect a nation. Incidentally Minister Emishi Soga pretended to be the head of Japan. At the palace of Naniwa, Empress Kogyoku made a draperyabout 4.82m in height, in which were embroidered Buddhist images.The central image is Sakyamuni-buddha (釈迦牟尼仏) and it is clear that those images were based on the patterns described in the Suvarna -prabhasa. At the Emperor Tenchi's palace of Otsu in Omi province, there was also an embroidered image of Sakyamuni-buddha of th esame height, in front of which prince Otomo, the prime Minister, and the five dignites burnt incense and swore to observe the rescript of Emperor Tenchi. It was believed that if they should be forsworn, they would be forsaken by the Catasrah-maha-rajika. But at that time, the Suvarna-prabhosa was only a part of the private Buddhism belonging to the Imperial Court and it had to wait for the period of Emperor Temmu to be a leading sutra of the national Buddhism. The establishment of the law-system was a remote cause of the change of the character of Buddhism…..from the Buddhism of a clan or the Imperial Court to a nation-wide religion, and the Suvarna·-Prabhasa and the Ninn-o-han-nya-ha-ra-mitsu-kyo (仁王船若波羅密教) supplied the doctrine to this national Buddhism.show more
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