Damjing (), or Donchō (in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

), was a Korean Buddhist priest who was sent to ancient Japan from

Goguryeo Goguryeo (37 BC – 668 AD) (; ; Old Korean: Guryeo) also later known as Goryeo (; ; Middle Korean: 고ᇢ롕〮, ''kwòwlyéy''), was a Korean kingdom which was located on the northern and central parts of the Korea, Korean Peninsula an ...

around 610. How his name was pronounced in the

Goguryeo language The Goguryeo language, or Koguryoan, was the language of the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo (37 BCE – 668 CE), one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Early Chinese histories state that the language was similar to those of Buyeo, Okjeo and Ye. Lee K ...

is unknown. Almost nothing has come down about him besides a few lines in the ''

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

'' (720 A.D.), which is almost the only reliable source. On the grounds that this is the first appearance about the manufacture of paper, it has been said, all in all, from the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, that he brought papermaking skills to Japan first. However, there is no sufficient grounds to say so from the text; as to the watermill, it is mentioned that he probably introduced it first, while papermaking is not mentioned. If he had done so, it should have been mentioned along with the mention of the watermill. B. Jugaku, in his study ''The Japanese Paper'', making a comparative review of surviving ancient documents, concludes the text is a compliment for the Buddhist priest who was also familiar with

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

, what is more, never ignorant of crafts; and if properly read, it does not state that he was the first person to bring the methods for color, ink and papermaking, rather that he was quite a craftsman for producing them. Additionally, at that time, maintenance of the state apparatus, which required enormous amounts of paper such as for family registers, had been started. The facts of the time support such a reading. ''Biography of Prince Shōtoku'' (written in 917 or maybe 992) tells that

Prince Shōtoku , also known as or , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was the son of Emperor Yōmei and his consort, Princess Anahobe no Hashihito, who was also Yōmei's younger half ...

invited him to Ikaruga-no-miya Palace, and afterward kept him at

Hōryū-ji is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Nanto Shichi Daiji, Seven Great Temples, located in Ikaruga, Nara, Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Built shortly after Buddhism was introduced to Japan, it is also one of the oldest Buddh ...

. However, it is not regarded as an historical fact since the book is a grand sum of mythical biographies about him. In Korea, in recent years, some people have claimed that the wall painting in the Kondō of

was made by Damjing,e.g. articles on Damjing a
글로벌 세계 대백과사전
an

/ref> but this is not based on any surviving documents. Furthermore, the original temple was burned around 670 and the current one is a reconstruction from the late 7th century.

Notes and references

External links

Donchō
-

Encyclopedia Nipponica The is a discontinued series of encyclopedia of Japan and the Japanese people, first published by Shogakukan from 1984 to 1989 in 25 volumes. After 10 years of preparation, over 130,000 entries and 500,000 indexes were organized in alphabetical or ...

{{Paper Goguryeo Buddhist monks Buddhist media 7th-century Buddhist monks Buddhist clergy of the Asuka period

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See also

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