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Genbō

Genbō (玄昉, d. 746) was a Japanese scholar-monk and bureaucrat of the Imperial Court at Nara.^[1] He is best known as a leader of the Hossō sect of Buddhism and as the adversary of Fujiwara no Hirotsugu.^[2]

Career

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In 717–718, Genbō was part of the Japanese mission to Tang China (Kentōshi) along with Kibi no Makibi,^[3] Abe no Nakamaro.^[4] Later Bodhisena also joined as their companion.^[5] Genbō stayed in China for 17 years.^[6] Genbō brought many esoteric Buddhist texts with him when he returned to Japan.^[7]

AtKōfuku-ji, he was appointed abbot (sōjō)^[8]byEmperor Shōmu.^[1]

• 740 (Tenpyō12): Hirotsugu petitioned for the removal of Genbō; and then Kibi no Makibi and Genbō used this complaint as a pretext to discredit Hirotsugu.^[9] As a result, Hirotsugu initiates a futile military campaign in the 9th month of the same year.
• 745 (Tenpyō 17): Genbō was exiled to Dazaifu on the island of Kyushu.^[10]

At the time of Genbō's death, it was popularly believed that he was killed by the vengeful spirit of Hirotsugu.^[11]

• Japanese missions to Imperial China
• Japanese missions to Tang China
• Dōkyō

• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Ooms, Herman. (2009). Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: the Tenmu dynasty, 650-800. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824832353; OCLC 213495459
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du Japon (Nihon Odai Ichiran). Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691