>>714269029The Mononobe clan plus their allies and Oda Nobunaga hated Buddhism in Japan.
The Soga clan were originally a noble clan who hailed from Korea who gained influence through many political reforms they brought about.
The Soga family firmly believed that the most civilized people believed in Buddhism and continued to actively promote it, placing a holy image of the Buddha in a major Shinto shrine.
Many Japanese at the time, disliking foreign ideas and believing that this new religion might be an affront to the traditional "kami" or spirits and gods, opposed Buddhism. The rival Mononobe and Nakatomi clans succeeded in gathering hostility against this new religion when a disease spread, following the arrival of a Buddhist statue. It was claimed the epidemic was a sign of anger by the local spirits and the Soga temple at the palace was burned down.
Following the death of Emperor Yōmei in 587, Mononobe's party and Soga's each sought to influence the succession. The dispute quickly erupted into outright battle, in which Mononobe no Moriya is credited with setting fire to the first Buddhist temples in Japan, and tossing the first images of the Buddha, imported from Baekje, into the canals of the city of Naniwa (now Osaka).
After fifty years of religious war, Buddhism, defended and protected by the Soga, began to take hold in Japan.
Shinto purists led by Monobe Clan lost the war against Soga.