The Indian diaspora in Japan has historically been small, but has encompassed a colourful cast, from revolutionaries to textile traders. The oldest documented Indian resident in Japan, and arguably the most influential, was Bodhisena, a monk from Madurai whose outsized impact on Japanese culture persists even some 1,300 years after he docked on the archipelago’s shores.
Bodhisena, or Bodaisenna as his name is pronounced in Japanese, was born around 704 AD. His life and journeys exemplify the multi-directional flows of Buddhist influence and the complex ways in which these tied swathes of Asia into a civilisational embrace. Like many South Asian Buddhist monks, Bodhisena came to believe that Manjushri (the bodhisattva of wisdom) lived on the Chinese mountain of Wutai, and therefore travelled there to pay obeisance. While in China, he met the Japanese ambassador to the Tang court, who persuaded him to carry on to Japan on the invitation of the then Emperor, Shomu (701-756 AD), a devout Buddhist.
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