Shotoku Taishi (7 feb 574 año – 8 abr 622 año)

Descripción:

Prince Shotoku, also known as Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya, ruled as regent of Japan from 594 to 622 CE and was a semi-legendary regent and a politician in Japan who served under Emperess Suiko.

He is recorded to have been a great Buddhist scholar and statesman.

His parents were Emperor Youmei (518-587) and Princess Anahobe no Hashihito (. He was the nephew of Empress Suiko. He had a spouse, KASHIWADE no Hokikimi no Iratsume, and a child, Prince Yamashiro.

Under Shotoku, Buddhism became the state religion. He was the first Japanese person to understand Buddhism.

Many details of Prince Shotoku's life are recorded in Nihon Shoki, a document compiled in 720. According to it, Shotoku stood up and began praying soon after he was born and could understand 10 people talking to him at the same time. It also lists that when he died, everyone from court members to farmers to childen wept.