Prince Shotoku was a regent who served under Empress Suiko during the Asuka period. One of the most common political legitimacies stemmed from the notion of ‘dharma king’. The term refers to the king of law, with a suggestion that a monarch advocates justice and order. This semi-sacred title was bestowed to Dokyo when he swore the Imperial Office of the Dharma King, or hoo kyushiki. Dokyo, a monk in the Nara period amid Shotoku's reign, represented the political endowment of monastics which even posed threat to the ruling aristocracy (Deal and Ruppert 2015, 65). Dokyo’s dominance in the court reached an apex when Shotoku elevated him to be the daijin zenji, or Buddhist Minister of the State. Ostensibly as a court bureaucrat, the de facto function of the position is a distinguished monastic serving the court. As Deal and Ruppert (2015, 65) addressed, Shotoku blurred the binary between imperial and Buddhist sphere of power.

Portrait of Prince Shotoku. The physical appearance indicates continental traits.

Ashikaga Takauji was the first shongun in Ashikaga period. After the Gempei war (1180-1185) , Ashikaga Takauji commissioned a full-scale memorial campaign for whom sacrificed their precious lives in the battles. As a devout Buddhist, he commenced his religious building project with constructing a 'temple of peace in the realm' (ankokuji) and a 'pagoda of Buddha's favour' (rishoto) in each province (Turnbull 2011, 186).

The proliferation of ankokuji and rishoto, as headquarters of the Zen and Shingon Buddhism respectively, were considered to be a panacea to mourn for the deceased souls. The proliferation of the temple network was reminiscent of the kokubunji system by Shomu that it created a Bakufu-connected nationwide network of political calculation and indoctrination (Mass 1997, 287). Despite the ostensible religious impulse, the temple network also embodied political ambition since it demonstrated 'territorial control by patron' (Mass 1997, 288). Namely, central authority permeated to the provincial level with the integration of them into official gozan network of official temples. The political implication stemmed from the claim that Ashikaga shogunate's benevolence would empower their monarchy (Mass 1997, 288). Also, as Zen Buddhism was an emblem of cultural capital, or an important form of high-taste knowledge, engaging in Buddhist patronage would undoubtedly gentrify the Ashikaga Shogun and consolidate their reputation.

With portraying the Ashikaga shogun as a virtuous monarch, he claimed that he executed power based on consensual approaches instead of coercion, which adds up to his political legitimacy.