Ugeno 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
centuries, and in that great invasion of 1592-1597, which has left a
scar even to this day on the Korean mind. At home, Buddhist priests only
too gladly accompanied the imperial armies of conquest and occupation.
During centuries of activity in the southwest and in the far east and
extreme north, the military brought the outlying portions of the empire,
throughout the whole archipelago, under the sway of the Yamato tribe and
the Mikado's dominion. The shorn clerks not only lived in camp,
ministered to the sick and shrived the dying soldier, but wrote texts
for the banners, furnished the amulets and war cries, and were ever
assistant and valuable in keeping up the temper and morals of the
armies.
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