was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

scholar and noble during 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 cap ...

. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)
"Kibi no Makibi"
in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 512. Also known as .

Early life

Kibi no Makibi was born in Shimotsumichi County, Bitchu Province (present-day

Kurashiki is a historic city located in western Okayama Prefecture, Japan, sitting on the Takahashi River, on the coast of the Inland Sea. As of March 31, 2017, the city has an estimated population of 483,576 and a population density of 1,400 persons per ...

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefectur ...

) as ''Shimotsumichi-no Asomi Makibi'', as a son of Shimotsumichi-no Asomi Kunikatsu. Shimotsumichi clan was a line of local elites and came from the greater Kibi clan. Kibi was also the ancient name of area he came from (

Kibi Province was an ancient province or region of Japan, in the same area as Okayama Prefecture and eastern Hiroshima Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kibi''" in . It was sometimes called . It was divided into Bizen (備前), Bitchū (� ...

), which encompassed Bitchu, Bizen,

Bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** Bi ...

and Mimasaka Provinces.

Career

In 717-718, Kibi was part of the Japanese mission to Tang China (''Kentōshi'') with

Abe no Nakamaro , whose Chinese name was Chao Heng (, pronounced ''Chōkō'' in Japanese), was a Japanese scholar and ''waka'' poet of the Nara period. He served on a Japanese envoy to Tang China and later became the Tang '' duhu'' (protectorate governor) of ...

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 7 ...

. Kibi stayed in China for 17 years before returning to Japan. He is credited with bringing back a number of things, introducing to Japan the game of '' go'' and the art of embroidery. In 737, he received promotion to the junior fifth rank. His influence at court triggered the Fujiwara no Hirotsugu Rebellion of 740. In 751, at the senior fourth rank (upper grade), he received an appointment as vice-ambassador to the

T'ang Dynasty 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 Kingd ...

and traveled to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

the following year, returning to Japan in 753. Kibi spent some years in

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

as the assistant administrator of Dazaifu (the principal governmental post on the island); he returned to

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 i ...

. In 764, he was made head of the project to construct

Tōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful Nanto Shichi Daiji, Seven Great Temples, located in the city of Nara, Nara, Nara, Japan. Though it was originally founded in the year 738 CE, Tōdai-ji was not opened until the year ...

. Promotion to the junior third rank followed. He was appointed to head an army to put down the uprising by

Fujiwara no Nakamaro , also known as , Brown, Delmer M. (1979). ''Gukanshō,'' p. 274 was a Japanese aristocrat (''kuge''), courtier, and statesman. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Fujiwara no Nakamaro"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 207. He was Chancellor (''Daij� ...

. Reaching the second rank in 765, he took the offices of Major Councillor, then

Minister of the Right was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods. The position was consolidated in the Taihō Code of 702. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the initial appearance of the ''udaijin'' in the context of a central administr ...

. In 770, he supported a losing candidate for the throne and submitted his resignation from office. The court accepted only his resignation from military office and retained him as Minister of the Right. He finally resigned in 771, devoting himself to the study of

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

principles and their applications in Japanese administration. Kibi died in 775 at the age of 80. Kibi has sometimes been credited with inventing the ''

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

'' phonetic syllabary and writing system. A late 12th century narrative handscroll in the collection of the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

depicting Kibi's journey to China is one of the earliest of all Japanese narrative pictorial handscrolls (''e-maki'') known. It is believed to have been commissioned to help support the prestige of a school of divination that claimed connections to Kibi. Its purchase by the museum in 1932 directly led to the strengthening of Japanese laws against the removal of cultural properties of particular importance from the country.Morse, Anne Nishimura et al. ''MFA Highlights: Arts of Japan''. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Publications, 2008. p. 194.

Notes

References

*Papinot, Edmond (1910). ''Historical and geographical dictionary of Japan''. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha. *''Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan'' (1995). Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd.

External links

Minister Kibi's Trip to China handscroll at MFA.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kibi, Makibi 695 births 775 deaths Kuge People from Kurashiki Japanese Confucianists People of Asuka-period Japan People of Nara-period Japan People from Dazaifu, Fukuoka Japanese ambassadors to the Tang dynasty Onmyōji Deified Japanese people

Early life

Career

See also

Notes

References

External links