A volume might be written and devoted to Japanese Buddhism as a
political power; for, having quickly obtained intellectual possession of
the court and emperor, it dictated the policies of the rulers. In A.D.
624, it was recognized as a state religion, and the hierarchy of priests
was officially established. At this date there were 46 temples and
monasteries, with 816 monks and 569 nuns. As early as the eighth
century, beginning with Sh[=o]mu, who reigned A.D. 724-728, and who with
his daughter, afterward the female Mikado, became a disciple of Shaka,
the habit of the emperors becoming monks, shaving their heads and
retiring from public life, came in vogue and lasted until near the
nineteenth century. By this means the bonzes were soon enabled to call
Buddhism "the people's religion," and to secure the resources of the
national treasury as an aid to their temple and monastery building, and
for the erection of those images and wayside shrines on which so many
millions of dollars have been lavished. In addition to this subsidized
propaganda, the Buddhist confessor was too often able, by means of the
wife, concubine, or other female member of the household, imperial or
noble, to dictate the imperial policy in accordance with monkish or
priestly ideas. Ugéno D[=o]-ki[=o], a monk, is believed to have aspired
to the throne. Being made premier by the Empress K[=o]-ken, whose
passion for him is the scandal of history, he made no scruple of
extending the power as well as the influence of the Buddhist hierarchy.

Buddhism had also a distinct influence on the military history of the
country,[37] and this was greatest during the civil wars of the rival
Mikados (1336-1392), when the whole country was a camp and two lines of
nominees claimed to be descendants of the sun-goddess. Japan's only
foreign wars have been in the neighboring peninsula of Korea, and
thither the bonzes went with the armies in the expeditions of the early