Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/160

 shown by the Court and the great nobles in promoting the spread of Buddhism. During the seventy-five years comprised in the epoch, no less than seven of the grandest temples ever seen in Japan were erected; a multitude of idols were cast, among them a gigantic Daibutsu; colossal bells were founded, and all the best artists and artisans of the time devoted their services to these costly works. The mania reached its zenith in the reign of the Emperor Shomu (724–749), whose religious zeal was supplemented by a love of pomp that led him to lavish great sums on rich costumes, expensive sports, and handsome edifices, and by superstition so profound that whenever any natural calamity or abnormal phenomenon occurred, he caused religious services to be performed at heavy cost. In addition to the large demands of the central treasury, salaries and emoluments for the leading officials were assessed on a liberal scale; the Prime Minister's pay being equal to the earning capacities of three thousand families, that of the second Minister to the earnings of two thousand families, and so on in a descending rate.

The agricultural classes, who were the chief tax-payers, began to show themselves unequal to this strain. It was also appreciated that the theory of State ownership of land, applied according to the provisions of the Taikwa and Taihō legislation, produced a demoralising effect upon the farmer, since he did not care to improve land which might