"Seventeen-Article Constitution"

Published in Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from Earliest Times to A.D. 697, 1896

"Sincerely reverence the three treasures. The three treasures: the Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood, are the … supreme objects of faith in all countries. What man in what age can fail to reverence this law?"

Though Japan had been inhabited for thousands of years, it first emerged as a unified nation under the leadership of the Yamato (yuh-MAH-toh; "imperial") family in the Kofun period (koh-FUN; 250–552). It is likely that these early Japanese were heavily influenced by visitors from China, and from the 300s onward, the country welcomed a steady stream of Chinese and Korean immigrants.

During the Asuka period (552–645), the royal court in Korea introduced the leaders of Japan to a new religion, Buddhism (BÜD-izm). This sparked a conflict among the...