Shōtoku (prince) - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Biography

Shōtoku was a son of the emperor Yōmei. His/her mother was the empress Anahobe No Hashihito (穴穂部間人皇女, anahobe No hajihito No himemiko). His/her parents were all two of the children of the emperor Kimmei but different mothers. When the first empress, the empress Suiko, went up on the throne, it was named Sesshō (regent) and assisted the empress. She was at the same time her aunt and her mother-in-law because he Maria with her daughter, the princess Uji No Kahitako.

According to the Nihonshoki he managed to set up a government centralized during his reign. In 603, it instituted the twelve official rows at the court. The Constitution of seventeen articles was also promulgated at the same period, and is often allotted to prince Shōtoku, although today the specialists doubt that it wrote this constitution because of the style used. In 607, it sent a delegation directed by Ono No Imoko near the Dynastie Sui, in China.

Prince Shōtoku is especially known to have developed the Bouddhisme in Japan. It is him which ordered the construction of the temple Shitennō-ji in the Province of Naniwa (nowadays Ōsaka). To achieve this construction, it made come from the family members Kongō since the Korea, and in this way, it had a central role in the formation of the Kongō Gumi, more the hurdy-gurdy undertaken in continuous activity of the world.

It supported the temple Hōryū-ji in the Yamato. The documents preserved at the Hōryū-ji affirm that the temple was rested by the Suiko empress and by prince Shōtoku in 607 but no archaeological proof corroborates this assertion.

According to the tradition, it is a residence of holidays of this prince who will become the Saihō-ji or Kokedera (temple of foams).

One allots to prince Shōtoku the first use of the name Nihon which indicates Japan today. In a letter which he would have written in the name of the Suiko empress intended for the Chinese emperor Yangdi, one can read:

“the emperor of the country where the sun rises ( nihon / hi iduru ) sends a letter to the emperor of the country where the sun lies down. ( Hi izuru No tokoro No tenshi. Hi bossuro No tokoro No tenshi. ”

Wives and descent

Princess Uji Kahitako, girl of the Bidatsu emperor and the empress Nukatabe (Suiko empress)
Kashiwade No Hokikimo No Iratsume, girl of Kashiwade No Katabuko No Omi, mother of:

Princess Tsuishine No Kimi, married to its half brother the Prince Yamashiro No Oe
Princess Hatsuse No Miko
Princess Kuhata No Miko
Prince Hatori No Miko
Princess Sakikusa No Miko

SOGA Tojiko No Iratsume, girl of SOGA No Umako, mother of:

Prince Yamashiro No Oe
Princess Takara No Miko
Princess Hiki No Miko
Prince Kataoka No Oka

Inabe No Tachibana No Miko, girl of Ohari No Miko, mother of:

Prince Shirakabe No Miko
Prince Teshima No Miko

Titles

Shōtoku is known by several titles. Its true name was Umayado No ōji (厩戸皇子, literally the prince of the door of the cattle sheds), because it was born opposite a cattle shed. It is also known under the name of Toyosatomimi (豊聡耳) or Kamitsumiyaō (上宮王). In the Kojiki , its name seems Kamitsumiya No Umayado No Toyosatomimi No Mikoto (上宮之厩戸豊聡耳命). In the Nihonshoki , it also seems Umayado No ōji , and is called 豊耳聡聖徳, 豊聡耳法大王, and 法主王.

The name much more known of prince Shōtoku appears for the first time in the Kaifūsō writes in 751, that is to say more than one hundred years after its death.

Anecdote

Shōtoku appears on the first ticket of 10 000 Yen, which was put in circulation on February 1st 1958.

Zh-classical: 聖德太子

Random links:

PFIAB | Michel Lallement | Golden delicious Awards Ticket | Strait of Bali | Claude Schockert