Japan adopted the Chinese culture of the Tang Dynasty on a large scale during the Nara period. The Japanese government sent many students to China to study and absorb Chinese culture, which was at the height of its prosperity. Simultaneously, Japan’s leaders felt keenly the need to have an authorized Buddhist prelate teach Japanese Buddhist students and initiate them into the priesthood in Japan. The illustrious Tang priest Ganjin was invited by the Japanese government for this purpose. Ganjin finally reached Japan in 754 after a long journey full of privation and hardship, as a result of which he became blind. Toshodaiji was founded by Priest Ganjin under imperial patronage and served as the highest seat of learning and the place for training men in Buddhist rituals. It flourished till the end of the 9thcentury.