The Reign of Empress Shōtoku

February 11, 2021 justin-david-hebert Nara, Season 4 Comments Off on The Reign of Empress Shōtoku
Season 4, Episode 12: The Reign of Empress Shōtoku
A statue of Wake Kiyomaro, the man who was sent to verify the gods’ message at Usa Hachimangu and instead risked his life by refusing to distort the oracle he was given. This statue is fairly historically accurate, right down to the Jian-style straight-bladed sword which was still common during the Nara Period. Source: by Reggaeman, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons
The Usa Hachimangu Shrine as it exists today. Source: Dana + LeRoy Bunward, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons