ueathed to him by Tenchi and Temmu should have engrossed his
attention, but he subserved everything to religion, and thus the
great national work, begun in the Daika era and carried nearly to
completion in the Daiho, suffered its first check. Some annalists
have pleaded in Shomu's behalf that he trusted religious influence to
consolidate the system introduced by his predecessors. However that
may be, history records as the most memorable event of his reign his
abdication of the throne in order to enter religion, thus
inaugurating a practice which was followed by several subsequent
sovereigns and which materially helped the Fujiwara family to usurp
the reality of administrative power. Shomu, on receiving the tonsure,
changed his name to Shoman, and thenceforth took no part in secular
affairs.

In all this, however, his procedure marked a climax rather than a
departure. In fact, never did any foreign creed receive a warmer
welcome than that accorded to Buddhism by the Japanese after its
first struggle for tolerance. Emperor after Emperor worshipped the
Buddha. Even Tenchi, who profoundly admired the Confucian philosophy
and whose experience of the Soga nobles' treason might well have
prejudiced him against the faith they championed; and even Temmu,
whose ideals took the forms of frugality and militarism, were lavish
in their offerings at Buddhist ceremonials. The Emperor Mommu enacted
a law for the better control of priests and nuns, yet he erected the
temple Kwannon-ji. The great Fujiwara statesmen, as Kamatari, Fuhito,
and the rest, though they belonged to a family (the Nakatomi) closely
associated with Shinto worship, were reverent followers of the Indian
faith. Kamatari approved of his eldest son, Joye, entering the
priesthood, and sent him to China to study the Sutras. He also gave
up his residence at Yamashina for conversion into a monastery.
Fujiwara Fuhito built the Kofuku-ji, and his son, Muchimaro, when
governor of Omi, repaired temples in the provinces, protected their
domains, and erected the Jingu-ji.

That among the occupants of the throne during 165 years, from 593 to
758, no less than seven were females could not but contribute to the
spread of a religion which owed so much to spectacular effect. Every
one of these sovereigns lent earnest aid to the propagation of
Buddhism, and the tendency of the age culminated in the fanaticism of
Shomu, re-enforced as it was by the devotion of his consort, Komyo.
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