The prince
Prince Umayado, known after his death as Shōtoku, "Sage Virtue", lived from about 574 to 622. According to the Nihon Shoki he served as regent for his aunt, Empress Suiko, from 593.
He is credited with the Seventeen-Article Constitution of 604, a set of principles for officials, whose second article urges them to revere the Three Treasures: the Buddha, the teaching and the community. He is also said to have written commentaries on three sūtras, sent embassies to Sui China, and founded temples including Shitennōji and Hōryūji.
Hōryūji
Hōryūji, near Nara, is the temple most associated with him. Its buildings, rebuilt after a fire in the late 7th century, are among the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world, and the Buddhist monuments of the Hōryūji area are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Why it matters
Later tradition credits him with much of Buddhism's early establishment in Japan, and he became a revered figure in Japanese Buddhism.
History and tradition
What historians can say
Shōtoku was a real prince of the Soga-aligned court, but almost everything written about him comes from the Nihon Shoki and later sources that were already turning him into a saint. Scholars debate whether he wrote the Constitution or the commentaries, and some argue that the figure of Shōtoku was largely created after his death.
What Buddhist tradition remembers
A devotional cult grew up around him. Later Japanese Buddhists revered him as an incarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, and tell that he could hear ten people speaking at once and answer each one.