, whose Chinese name was Chao Heng (, pronounced ''Chōkō'' in Japanese), was a Japanese scholar and '' waka'' poet of the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the c ...

. He served on a Japanese envoy to

Tang China The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

and later became the Tang '' duhu'' (protectorate governor) of Annan (modern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

). Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)
"Abe no Nakamaro, "
'Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 3.

Early life

He was a descendant of , the son of Emperor Kōgen and first son of . As a young man he was admired for having outstanding academic skills.

Career

In 717–718, he was part of the Japanese mission to Tang China (''Kentōshi'') along with Kibi no Makibi and

Genbō was a Japanese scholar-monk and bureaucrat of the Imperial Court at Nara. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Gembō" in . He is best known as a leader of the Hossō sect of Buddhism and as the adversary of Fujiwara no Hirotsugu. Career In 71 ...

. They returned to Japan; he did not. In China, he passed the civil-service examination. Around 725, he took an administrative position and was promoted in

Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyan ...

in 728 and 731. Around 733 he received , who would command the Japanese diplomatic mission. In 734, he tried to return to Japan but the ship to take him back sank not long into the journey, forcing him to remain in China for several more years. In 752, he tried again to return, with the mission to China led by Fujiwara no Kiyokawa, but the ship he was traveling in was wrecked and ran aground off the coast of Annan (modern day northern

), but he managed to return to

Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin ...

in 755. When the

An Lushan Rebellion The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general off ...

started later that year, it was unsafe to return to Japan and Nakamaro abandoned his hopes of returning to his homeland. He took several government offices and rose to the position of Duhu (Governor-protector) of Annam between 761 and 767, residing in Hanoi. He then returned to Chang'an and was planning his return to Japan when he died in 770 at age 72. He was a close friend of the Chinese poets

Li Bai Li Bai (, 701–762), also pronounced as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (), was a Chinese poet, acclaimed from his own time to the present as a brilliant and romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du F ...

and Wang Wei, Zhao Hua, Bao Xin, and Chu Guangxi.

Legacy

From his literary work he is most famous for a poem filled with intense longing for his home in

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

. One of his poems was included in the anthology ''

Hyakunin Isshu is a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese ''waka'' by one hundred poets. ''Hyakunin isshu'' can be translated to "one hundred people, one poem ach; it can also refer to the card game of ''uta-garuta'', which uses a deck compos ...

'': Abe's place in Japanese cultural history is confirmed in

Hokusai , known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock print series '' Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the iconic print ''The Great W ...

's ''Hyakunin Isshu'' series of

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ta ...

woodblock prints.Machotka, Ewa. (2009)
''Visual Genesis of Japanese National Identity: Hokusai's 'Hyakunin Isshu', '' pp. 92-95

References

Bibliography

External links