Imperial embassies to China

The Japanese missions to Imperial China were diplomatic embassies which were intermittently sent to the Chinese court. Any distinction amongst diplomatic envoys sent from the Imperial Japanese court or from any of the Japanese shogunates was lost or rendered moot when the ambassador was received in the Chinese capital.

Extant records document missions to China between the year of 607 and 894. The composition of these Imperial missions included members of the kuge and Buddhist priests. These missions led to the importation of Chinese culture including advances in sciences and technologies. These diplomatic encounters produced the beginnings of a range of Schools of Buddhism in Japan, including Zen.

From the sinocentric perspective of the Chinese Court in Chang'an, the several embassies sent from Kyoto were construed as tributaries of Imperial China; but it is not clear that the Japanese shared this view.

China seems to have taken the initiative in opening relations with Japan. Sui Emperor Yangdi (kensui taishi) dispatched a message in 605 that said:

The sovereign of Sui respectfully inquires about the sovereign of Wa.

Prince Shōtoku responded by sponsoring a mission led by Ono no Imoko in 607. The Prince's own message contains the earliest written instance in which the Japanese archipelago is named "Nihon", literally, sun-origin. The salutation said:

From the sovereign of the land of the rising sun (nihon/hi izuru) to the sovereign of the land of the setting sun."

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