Shōmu

Shōmu's tomb

Shōmu ( Japanese 聖 武天皇 , Shōmu-tennō ; * 701 ; † June 4, 756 [Japanese calendar: 756/5/2]) was the 45th Tennō of Japan , abdicated 749/7/2. His proper name was Prince Obito .

Genealogical

Prince Obito was a son of Mommu -tennō, so he was a grandson of three Tennō, Temmu , Tenji and his daughter Jitō . His mother was Fujiwara no Miyako, a daughter of Fujiwara no Fuhito .

The woman Shōmus, Fujiwara no Kōmyōshi , ( 藤原 光明 子 ) was the daughter of the second wife Fuhito . She was, first concubine, from 729/8/1 main consort, the first Kogo who was not of imperial blood. With her he had a son and two daughters. His son, who was made crown prince at the age of 11 months, died in childhood. His first daughter was the Kōken -tennō, who was called Shōtoku-tennō during her second reign. The other daughter became the wife ( kōgō ) of the Kōnin -tennō.

Reign

His reign is at the height of the Nara period (710–794). The power of the two second strongest clans ( Uji ), among them the Fujiwara , experienced a break because of some deaths (from epidemics), so Shōmu could actually probably combine more power than other Tennō.

The following era names ( Nengō ) fall between the enthronement and his death :

• 724 Jinki
• 729 Tempyō also Tenbyō or Tenhei
• 749 Tempyō-Kampō (from the 14th day, 4th month; occasion: first gold discovery in Japan)
• 749 Tempyō-Shōhō (from 19th day, 8th month; Kōken takes office)

Prince Nagaya ( 長 屋 王 , 684–729), the 2nd son Temmus , becomes 718 Dainagon, 721 Chancellor on the right ( Udaijin ), 724 Chancellor on the left ( Sadaijin ). 729 is secretly reported (by 'Nuribe no Miytsuko Kimitari' and 'Nakatomo no Miyakoto Muraji Azumabito') that he has a conspiracy in mind. During the night the conspirators are surrounded. Nagaya kills himself and his people. In his position as Udaijin he prevented the award of the honorary title daifujin to the Empress Mother (from the house of Fujiwara, therefore not of imperial blood). He made enemies of the four sons of Fujiwara no Fubitos, whom such an increase in rank would also have served. It can be assumed that these spread the rumor of the coup plans. Fujiwara no Umasaki was at the head of the troops that besieged Nagaya's house .

Immediately after Nagaya's suicide, Kōmyō, the main wife Shōmus, was given the title of empress (kōgō), which until then had been reserved for members of the imperial family. The events also significantly strengthened the position of the Fujiwara within the Council of State; if they previously held 2 out of 10 positions, in 736 it was already 4 out of 8.

Shōmu obviously felt personally responsible for the poor condition of the empire, in which epidemics and famine raged, especially from 735 onwards. A large number of sutras, amnesties and tax decrees with the distribution of rice from government-owned stores, which he ordered, fall during this period. Politically, the death of the four Fujiwara brothers (737) in the State Council was rather welcome for him. By filling the positions with members of relatively obscure clans, he gained greater scope for decision-making. During the rebellion of Fujiwara no Hirotsugu , which began in Kyushu in 740, the emperor began a five-year period of wandering, during the plan, a temporary (?), New capital Kuni-kyō (today: Kizugawa ) laid out at least in outline, but after 3 years ago it was abandoned. In 744 the residence was briefly moved to the Naniwa Palace in Naniwa (today: Osaka) and in 745 for 5 months in the Shigaraki Palace in Shigaraki (today: Kōka ) until then, probably triggered by the sudden death of the Crown Prince, the return to Heijō-kyō (Nara) took place. At the same time, on the advice of the abbots of the Nara schools, it was decided not to establish Daibutsu in Shigaraki, but in Nara.

He was the first male Tennō to make a woman his official heir to the throne.

Buddhism

Shōmu is known for his devotion to Buddhism . Decades of attempts by the imperial family to gain control over Buddhism had hardly achieved anything: the powerful families owned clan temples ( Uji-dera ), and there were no officially ordained Hijiri and Zenji among the people . The seditious potential of lay groups among the people, Chishiki , should not be underestimated either. Shōmu managed to build a new Ritsuryō Buddhism (state Buddhism). In order to weaken the strong Uji-dera, he organized the Nara-Roku-shū , the six schools of Nara, for the first time . These were located (presumably alongside other schools) in one or more of the Uji-dera, but are barely visible in historical sources apart from their names.

He supported the establishment of the Kegon School in Tōdai-ji . The Tōdai-ji was also the center of the state protection temples ( Kokubunji ) founded by Shōmu in 741 , which should be grouped around him in a mandala shape. This temple thus became the religious center of his empire. Four other Buddhist schools were asked to use the Tōdai-ji as a seat as well. These five became the first of Nara's six schools. The last of the schools was the Risshū . He invited the monk Ganjin from China, who brought the monastic rules of the order, the Vinaya (Japanese Ritsu ), which until then had only been known in corrupted form, to Japan. The Risshū, also in Tōdai-ji, were given all official ordinations. Shōmu was also ordained a second time; the legitimacy of ordination has always been a top concern for Buddhists. The Risshū was closely connected with political interests from the start, as the rulers were unwilling to accept the uncontrolled growth of both power and the number of monks who neither had to pay taxes nor perform compulsory labor.

Shōmu seems to have finally come to terms with the spread of Buddhism among the people as the first in power. So he finally tried to use Buddhism to call on devout Buddhists and chishiki (scholars) in the people to help with the construction of the Tōdai-ji, the state temple and other projects. Gyōki , apparently one of the most popular and influential monks not officially recognized by the people, was not persecuted and eventually worked with Shōmu to establish the Tōdai-ji. Gyōki allegedly also brought the oracle that the indigenous Kami Amaterasu identified with Vairocana , a basis for the merging of pre-Buddhist, indigenous religions with the teachings of the Buddha.

Web links

• Family table of Japanese emperors (The Imperial Household Agency )

literature

• K. Asakawa, Henry Cabot Lodge (Ed.): Japan. From the Japanese Government History . HW Snow, Chicago 1910.
• Matthias Eder: History of the Japanese Religion, Volume 2: Japan with and under Buddhism. Asian Folclore Studies 7, 2. 1978. Digitized version ( Memento from December 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

predecessor	Office	Successor
Genshō	Emperor of Japan 724–749	Kōken