Hyakumanto Darani

The Hyakumantō Darani or "One Million Pagodas and Dharani Prayers" are a series of Buddhist prayers or spells that were printed on paper and then rolled up and housed in miniature wooden pagodas to be distributed to temples across all of Japan in the year 770. These prayers for peace were commissioned in 764 by the Empress of Japan to celebrate the successful suppression of the short-lived Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion, also known as the Emi Rebellion.

On the Orders of the Empress

After previously reigning as Empress Kōken (718-770), she was called Empress Shōtoku in her second reign and decreed that one million miniature wooden pagodas containing printed scrolls be created and sent across Japan in celebration. A second motivation would simply have been a display of power by asserting control over resources in order to carry out such an ambitious project that made use of the new technology of printing. As such, the Hyakumantō Darani can be seen as serving both political and devotional aims.

Woodcuts and Wooden Pagodas

Likely produced in Nara, these small three-story pagodas were made of a combination of cypress and katsura wood and contained four prayers for peace (Kompon, Jishinin, Sorin, and Rokudo), each printed on a separate piece of handmade paper. Created using woodblock printing, they are the oldest surviving examples of printing in Japan as well as some of the oldest specimens of printing worldwide. The enormous undertaking likely occurred in Nara, a center of printing in classical Japan, and was completed in the year 770 after 6 years of work and must have employed hundreds of people because marks on the 45,000+ surviving pagodas show evidence of more than 100 different lathes.