Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/281

 well expresses "customs duty;" rigaku (natural-law science) [sic] accurately represents "physics;" Kikwa-ho (country-change law) conveys without mistake the idea of "naturalization law," and such instances might be multiplied ad infinitum.  — A legend of the Empress Komyo says that, in obedience to a voice audible to herself alone, she vowed to wash with her own hands the bodies of a thousand beggars. The task had been completed as far as 999, when there presented himself a loathsome leper, covered with revolting sores. The courageous woman did not hesitate. She proceeded to wash the leper, and when he told her that if there were found in the world any woman sufficiently merciful to draw the venom from his sores with her mouth he should be healed, she did him that service. Thereupon the place was filled with dazzling effulgence; an exquisite aroma diffused itself around, and the leper, declaring himself the Buddha, disappeared.  —The Emperor Temmu (673-686) ordered that every house in the land should have an altar for the worship of Buddha, and his successors called temples and idols into existence by edicts.  —The Emperor Shōmu (724-748) was the inaugurator of this custom. After a reign of twenty-four years, he shaved his head and retired to a cloister.  —Dōkyō, the favourite Minister of the Empress Dowager Kōken.  —Only certain portions of the document are quoted here.  —The Soga family. This was the clan that distinguished itself by its unique fidelity to the cause of Buddhism, and assisted Prince Shotoku to destroy its own great rival, the Mononobe clan, which inveterately opposed the foreign faith. The Soga survived the Mononobe for thirty years only. Their disloyal arbitrariness towards the Throne provoked a revolt which ended fatally for themselves.  —Taikwa a signifies "great change." It was the first year-name in Japan, the period 645–649 being called Taikwa. <section end="Note 17" /> <section begin="Note 18" />—The student will hear this memorable reformation described sometimes as the Taikwa (great change) <section end="Note 18" />