THE EARLY ERAS OF HISTORY
period of one hundred and sixty-eight years from 591 to 759, fourteen sovereigns reigned, and five of them were females. A sixth lady practically ruled though she did not actually reign. The sway of these Empresses aggregated seventy-one years, and every one of them carried her religious fervour almost to the point of hysteria.[1] They were certainly instrumental in raising Buddhism to the place of eminence and influence it occupied so soon after its arrival in Japan, and it is not surprising to find that, in the seventy-second year after the Korean ambassador's coming, the country had forty-six temples, eight hundred and sixteen priests, and sixty nuns. Neither is it surprising to find that, in obedience to Shintô precedents, Buddhism was drawn into the field of politics, and Buddhist priests were admitted to a share in the administration. For the extreme practice of these methods also a female was responsible. The Empress-dowager Kōken (749–758) organized a religious government distinct from the secular, issued orders for the spiritual regulation of men's lives, assisted a monk (Dokyo) to dethrone the Emperor, and, if she did not sanction, certainly failed to check, the crimes he perpetrated to prepare his own path to the throne.
Not in the history of any other country can there be found a parallel for the large support that sovereign after sovereign of Japan extended
- ↑ See Appendix, note 11.
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