Hakusho

Hakusho is a Japanese name that can be translated to English as "white law" or "white code". In the context of Japanese law, it refers to an imperial edict issued by Emperor Shomu in 741 that prohibited Buddhist monks and nuns from owning property and living in luxury.

The Hakusho was a measure to reform the Buddhist clergy and curb the excesses of the monastic class. It was part of a broader effort to consolidate imperial power and achieve fiscal stability under the Taiho Code of 701. The edict restricted the clergy's ability to accumulate wealth and influenced the development of Buddhist institutions in Japan.

Interpreters of the Hakusho suggest that its goal was to reorient the monastic tradition towards a more austere and detached approach to spiritual practice, discouraging lavish lifestyles and emphasizing poverty and humility. However, its implementation and effects on Buddhist communities are subject to historical interpretation.

There have been different views on the nature and significance of the Hakusho, including variations within contemporary historical scholarship. Notably, one viewpoint holds that it aimed primarily at restricting the monastic class's civic and social influence, particularly at an institutional level, while offering theoretical rationalizations for centralized, and reform-laudatory patterns of interpretation.

Historians have associated the Hakusho with significant reform movements within Japanese Buddhism and its position within the judicial system during this period. The edict remains a topic of ongoing research into Buddhism's relationship to state policies during medieval Japan.