New Book - Emperor Shomu: Peregrination, 738-748

[Ross Bender]

Emperor Shōmu’s travels, particularly in the years from 740 to 745, have long attracted attention from Japanese scholars. He has been characterized as “the wandering Emperor,” and the period saw the sovereign undertake a months-long trek from the capital in Nara to the east and northeast, culminating at the site of his new capital, Kuni, at the end of 740. Then in the fall of 742 he set out for Shigaraki in Ōmi Province, where another city was begun, until a series of forest fires and earthquakes forced its abandonment in 745. At the Kōkadera in Shigaraki the construction of a massive statue of Rushana Budda was initiated, although the disasters forced the interruption of the project, which continued back at the Nara capital. Significantly, a good portion of time before and after this great peregrination was spent at yet another capital, Naniwa, in present-day Osaka, which Shōmu had rebuilt in the 720s. This translation covers the years of Shōmu's reign from 738 to 748. It analyzes his travels as both a reaction to the Fujiwara no Hirotsugu rebellion of 740, and also as a spiritual pilgrimage, during which the Emperor began to understand himself as a disciple of the Buddha due to karmic causation in previous lives. The growth of official Buddhism was coupled with intense devotion to the Ise Great Shrine, and a new reverence for the shrine of Hachiman in distant Kyushu.

Table of Contents

 

Preface	1
Introduction – Shōmu’s Grand Imperial Progress	3
Fujiwara no Hirotsugu’s Rebellion	4
Changing the Capitals and Imperial Travels	6
Silla and Balhae	23
Peregrination as Spiritual Pilgrimage	28
Ōtomo no Yakamochi, Court Poet	34
Table 1: Edicts and Orders from Great Council of State	37
Biographic Data	39
Text and Translation	41
Appendix 1: Kanji Glossary	275
Appendix 2: Shoku Nihongi	283
Selected Bibliography	291

 

Emperor Shōmu: Peregrination, 738-748: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi: Bender, Ross: 9798325962110: Amazon.com: Books

Ross Bender