Darani sutra 陀羅尼経, from a set of One Million Pagodas (Hyakumantō 百万塔), 767, Unknown Japanese, 2 3/8 × 18 1/2 in. ( × cm), Ink on paper, Japan, 8th century, According to Japan’s earliest recorded histories, in the mid-760s, the Empress Shōtoku (718–770) commissioned the production of one million miniature scrolls printed with Buddhist incantations, each one enshrined within a small wooden pagoda. When they were completed, the empress donated 100,000 scroll-pagoda combinations to each of the ten major Buddhist temples in Nara, then the capital. One of those temples, Hōryūji

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