Persons Sent to Tang China

Takamuko-no-Kuromaro

¶Takamuko-no-Kuromaro was at first called Takamuko-no-Ayahito, and also styled himself Kuromaro. In the sixteenth year of Emperor Suiko (608), when Ono-no-Imoko was sent as envoy to Sui China, he took Kuromaro and other student-scholars with him to study in Sui. Kuromaro studied abroad for thirty-three years and returned from Tang in the twelfth year of Emperor Jomei (640). In the first year of Taika (645) he was appointed Kuni-no-hakase, State Scholar, with the cap rank of Shōtoku. In the second year (646) he was sent as envoy to Silla, where he had hostages delivered and brought about the abolition of the Mimana tribute; he returned the following year. Silla had Kin Shunjū, of the rank of Jōshin Daiasan, escort him, and made Chunchu himself the hostage. In the fifth year (649), together with the monk Min (Sōmin), he received an edict and deliberated on the system of the eight ministries and the hundred officials. Soon afterwards he was granted the rank of Daikinjō (Note: one variant in the main text's annotations gives Daikage). In the fifth year of Hakuchi (654) he became Oshi, Senior Envoy, of the mission to Tang. With Kawabe-no-Maro, of Shōkinge rank, as Ambassador; Kusushi-no-Enichi, of Daisen'ge rank, as Vice-Ambassador; and the secretaries Fumi-no-Maro, of Daiotsujō rank (Note: one variant in the main text's annotations gives Shōsenge), Miya-no-Amita, Oka-no-Yoroshi of Shōotsujō rank, Okisome-no-Ōku, Nakatomi-no-Hashihito-no-Oyu of Shōotsuge rank, and Tanabe-no-Tori, he set out in two ships. They drifted for several months, then took the route by way of Silla, anchored at Raishū, and at length entered Chōan, where they were received in audience by Emperor Kōsō (Gaozong). Kaku Bunkyo, Tōgū Kanmon, Gatekeeper of the Eastern Palace, repeatedly asked about the geography of Japan and the names of the gods at the founding of the country, and Kuromaro answered each question in turn. Kuromaro died in Tang (Note: following the Nihongi).

Hata-no-Chōgen

¶Hata-no-Chōgen's father was the monk Benshō. Benshō was witty and eloquent and also versed in the learning of Rōshi and Sōshi. In the Taihō era, by imperial command, he crossed to Tang to pursue his studies. When Gensō (Xuanzong) was still a prince, before his accession, Benshō won his favor as a master of the game of go. Benshō had two sons, Chōkei and Chōgen, but Benshō and Chōkei both died in Tang. Benshō once composed a quatrain of homesickness, in which he sang that, gazing from beside the sun he looked toward Japan, and from within the clouds he sought the edge of the clouds in the far distance, that distant wandering brought weariness in a distant land, and that long sorrow was his lot in Chōan (Note: following the Kaifūsō). Chōgen returned home and served at court (Note: following the Kaifūsō). In the early years of Tenpyō he was commanded by imperial order to teach the Chinese language to two disciples (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi). In the fourth year (732) he went to Tang as a secretary of the embassy. Gensō, in view of the bond with Benshō, treated Chōgen with great generosity (Note: following the Kaifūsō). After his return he was granted Junior Fifth Rank Upper and held in turn the posts of Zusho-no-kami, Director of the Library, and Kazue-no-kami, Director of the Bureau of Accounts (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi).

Shaku Benshō (the monk Benshō)

¶Abe-no-Nakamaro (Note: the Shoku Nihongi and the Shoku Nihon Kōki write "maro" as "man," and the Japan section of the Tang Shu also gives "Zhongman," Chūman) was a son of Abe-no-Funamori, Nakatsukasa-no-taifu, Senior Assistant Minister of Central Affairs. He was intelligent by nature and fond of reading, and was granted Junior Eighth Rank Upper. In the second year of Reiki (716) he was chosen as a student-scholar to Tang. He was sixteen years old at the time. He crossed to Tang and pursued his studies (Note: the monk Kenshō's Kokinshū Shō cites the national history), and, with his learning broad, changed his name to Chōkō. Gensō granted him the post of Sa-hokketsu, Left Rectifier of Omissions, and made him companion to the Prince of Gi (Note: following the Japan section of the New Tang Shu. The Kokinshū Shō says that the Tang court gave him the surname Chō, the personal name Kō, and the style Chū, but which is correct is not known. Moreover, some of the poems presented by Tang men such as Ō I write the character "Chō" in a variant form. Further, from the poem in the Bunen Eika by Hō Kitsu seeing off Chō Shinkei, the envoy of congratulation from the country of Japan, on his return east, and from the phrase "Chō Kei of Japan" in the collected poems of Ri Haku, the two forms of Chō are interchangeable, and "Shinkei" was probably Nakamaro's style). He was later transferred to Hisho Kōsho, Collator in the Palace Library (following the collected poems of the Tang man Cho Kōgi. Note: a poem in this work, "Visiting the Collator Chō Kō in Rakuyō," tells in its opening couplets of the myriad countries paying court at the center of the heavens, with the eastern corner standing farthest along the Way; praises the immeasurable excellence of Master Chō, who attended the Crown Prince's quarters in a high carriage; describes him going in and out among the fairy-mountain library and strolling beside the river Isui; compares his visit to the scholar Hakuran wandering among the great scholars and gazing at each other at midnight; and speaks of the setting sun hanging over the high hall and the autumn wind entering the inner chamber, with the lines that they often say how far apart they are, and that unawares the radiance of Chō is born. If the date is inferred from the line 'attending the Spring Quarters,' he probably served when Emperor Shukusō was Crown Prince, but there is no other means of verification). Later he rose to Hisho-kan, Director of the Palace Library (following Ō I's collected poems), and concurrently held the post of Eiikei, Minister of the Imperial Guards. In the Shōhō era, when Fujiwara-no-Kiyokawa, Ambassador to Tang, arrived in Tang, Gensō ordered Nakamaro to receive him (Note: following the Nihon Kōsō Den Yōmonshō). When Kiyokawa was about to return home, Nakamaro wished to return with him (following the Kokinshū. Note: this work states that, as Nakamaro had not been able to return for many years, an envoy was sent again to Tang, and Nakamaro came out to the seashore at Meishū intending to return with him. According to the entry in the Nihon Kiryaku for the twenty-second year of Enryaku on the posthumous conferment of rank on Fujiwara-no-Kiyokawa, in the fourth year of Shōhō (752) Kiyokawa became Ambassador to Tang on a diplomatic mission and in the twelfth year of Tenpō (Tianbao, 753) tried to return on the same ship as the student-scholar Chōkō. Also, the preface to Ō I's poem seeing off the Director Chō in his collected poems contains the phrase 'our Emperor of the Kaigen era, Heaven and Earth, Great Treasure, Sage of Letters, Divine Warrior, Responsive to the Way,' and from this the date is inferred as the fourth year of Shōhō corresponding to the eleventh year of Tenpō. According to the Tang Shu, the honorific title of Gensō was conferred in the eighth year of Tenpō, so on that basis what this book says refers to Kiyokawa), and Gensō accordingly appointed Nakamaro as envoy. Nakamaro composed a poem, in which he sang that, taking up his commission and about to take leave of the country, he was unworthy of the honor of being an attendant of the throne; that at the center of the heavens he longed for the enlightened ruler, and across the sea he thought of his loving parents; that, bowing in memorial, he left the golden palace gate and his carriage horses departed from the jade-measured road; that the road to the isle of Hōrai was far, with fallen leaves in the woods of his old home; that to the west he gazed toward the day he would remember the favor shown him, and to the east he would return at the hour he felt the bond of duty; and that of all he possessed in his life, one precious sword he would leave behind as a gift to the man with whom he had formed friendship (Note: following the Bunen Eika and the Tōshi Hinki. These two works attribute this poem to Ko Kō. A recent theory of Hayashi Gahō says: "The characters 'Ko' and 'Chō' resemble each other in form, and Chō's Tōga, which writes 'Ko' as 'Chō,' is proof. The Eiishōkei Ko Kō at the end of Tenpō mentioned in the Wabu section of Do's Tsūten is just a man of that country, which also fits." That is followed and decided here). Ō I, Shangshu Usei, Right Assistant of the Department of State Affairs, composed a poem and preface to see Nakamaro off (following Ō I's collected poems), and Hō Kitsu, Chō Ka, and others all presented him with poems (following the Bunen Eika). Presently he arrived at Meishū and parted from the people of Tang. Gazing at the moon, Nakamaro was overcome with sorrow and composed a waka, in which he wondered whether the moon rising here was the same moon that had risen over Mount Mikasa at Kasuga, as he gazed up at the broad plain of the heavens. When it was written down in Chinese and shown to the people, all marveled at it (Note: following the Kokinshū and the Tosa Nikki. The Tosa Nikki writes "ama no hara" as "aounabara"). But at sea he met a violent storm and drifted to Annan (Note: following the Nihon Kiryaku). The people of Tang thought that Nakamaro had drowned, and Ri Haku, Hanrin Gubu, Attendant of the Hanlin Academy, composed a poem lamenting him (following the collected poems of the Tang man Ri Haku. Note: the poem "Lamenting Chō Kei Kō" in this work says that Chō Kei of Japan took leave of the imperial capital, that the single sail circled the isle of Hōko, and that the bright moon, never to return, sank in the blue sea, while white clouds filled Sōgo with the color of sorrow). Nakamaro later reached Tang again together with Kiyokawa (Note: following the Nihon Kiryaku. The entry in the New Tang Shu saying that in the twelfth year of Tenpō Chō Kō again came to court probably refers to this). Emperor Shukusō promoted Nakamaro to Sa-sanki-jōji and Annan Togo, Protector-General of Annan (following the New Tang Shu), and later he rose to Kōroku Taifu, concurrently held the posts of Gyoshi Chūjō and Duke of Hokkai Commandery, and was granted a fief of three thousand households (following the Shoku Nihon Kōki and the Kokinshū Shō). In the first month of the first year of Hōki (770) he died in Tang, at the age of seventy. Emperor Daisō posthumously granted him the title of Roshū Daitotoku, Governor-General of Roshū (following the Nihon Kiryaku. Note: this work treats these as the deeds of Kiyokawa, but this is probably because the original entry was lost and the careers of Kiyokawa and Nakamaro were confused. Here the matter is decided according to the text of the edict of the third year of Jōwa in the Shoku Nihon Kōki, the national history cited in the Kokinshū Shō, and the imperial genealogies. The Gōdanshō says, "Nakamaro was detained in Tang and starved to death in an upper chamber of a tower; when Kibi-no-Makibi went to Tang, he met Nakamaro's spirit," but that tale is too strange and is not adopted here).

¶Nakamaro once wrote a letter and entrusted it to Kin Inkyo, a Silla prince serving as a palace guard, to send to his relatives at home. The Silla envoy Kin Shoō carried the letter to Japan (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi). Nakamaro spent more than fifty years in Tang and, though he reached the heights of honor, his longing for home never ceased, and whenever he spoke of his native land he was never without sorrow (Note: following the Kokinshū Shō). In the tenth year of Hōki (779) an edict was issued, saying: "The former student-scholar Abe-no-Ason Nakamaro died in Tang, but his bereaved family is in want and lacks even the means for the funeral rites. We therefore grant one hundred bolts of eastern silk and three hundred ton of white floss" (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi). In the third year of Jōwa (836), on the occasion of the dispatch of an embassy to Tang, he was posthumously granted Senior Second Rank, and an edict stated: "The late student-scholar Abe-no-Ason Nakamaro (here written Nakamitsu), posthumously granted Junior Second Rank, crossed the rough seas in person, and in his studies achieved a feat as rare as the unicorn's horn. The peak of his poetry and prose stood high, he raised waves upon the sea of learning, he ascended to a conspicuous rank, and his fame had already spread widely. Why, then, was he not spared to complete his return home? Only his poems, soaring as if raised to the heavens, remain, and his reputation, which would ring if cast upon the ground, is long handed down. That his merit should be pursued and adorned in the netherworld has already been exalted by an earlier edict; but we now again confer a lofty rank and give it by this edict" (Note: following the Shoku Nihon Kōki. The record that he was granted Junior Second Rank is not found in other works; perhaps this was done when Kiyokawa was granted rank in the twenty-second year of Enryaku. The Nihon Kiryaku lacks the relevant passage, and there is now no way to investigate it).

Abe-no-Nakamaro

¶Fujiwara-no-Kiyokawa was the fourth son of Fujiwara-no-Fusasaki, Chūnagon and General. In the Tenpyō era he was granted Junior Fifth Rank Lower and became Nakatsukasa-no-shō, Junior Assistant Minister of Central Affairs; he was transferred to be Governor of Yamato and advanced to Junior Fourth Rank Lower. In the first year of Shōhō (749) he was appointed Sangi, Councillor. In the second year (750) he became Ambassador to Tang. In the fourth year (752) he received the Sword of Authority and set out for Tang, and was granted Senior Fourth Rank Lower (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi). When he reached Naniwa, the emperor sent Koma-no-Fukushin to comfort him with wine and meat, and bestowed on him a poem of his own composition (Note: following the Man'yōshū). When he arrived at Chōan and had audience with Gensō, Gensō said: "I have heard that there is a wise ruler in that country. Now, seeing its envoys, I find their bearing differs from that of the envoys of other lands," and called Japan a "land of courtesy and gentlemen." He then ordered Abe-no-Nakamaro to guide Kiyokawa and the others to view the treasuries and the Sankyōden, Hall of the Three Teachings. He also had portraits painted of Kiyokawa and the Vice-Ambassador Kibi-no-Makibi and had them stored in the Banzō, the repository of foreign guests. At their departure Gensō bestowed a poem, in which he sang that where the sun descends is no alien land and that this was a fine gathering at the center of the heavens; that, thinking of them, his remembrance of righteousness reached far, and that, pitying them, he reflected on how distant and perilous the road before them was; that the autumn moon spread wide over the swelling sea and their homeward sails would speed on the evening gale; and that he was thus astonished to see how brightly the transforming influence of that gentleman-ruler shone afar. He specially sent Shō Chōwan, Kōroshō, Minister of State Ceremonial, to see them off as far as Yōshū (Yangzhou), and had Gi Hōshin attend to their provisions (Note: following the Kōsō Den Yōmonshō). At this time Abe-no-Nakamaro also asked to be allowed to return home (Note: following the Kokinshū Shō), and Kiyokawa set out in the same ship as Nakamaro, but they met a violent storm and drifted ashore at Annan (Note: following the Nihon Kiryaku, twenty-second year of Enryaku). Reaching Kanshū, many of their company were killed by the local people, and Kiyokawa barely escaped. He returned to Chōan and remained there in the service of Tang. He changed his name to Kasei (Note: following the Nihon Kiryaku, twenty-second year of Enryaku) and became Tokushin Hisho-kan, Director of the Palace Library with Special Advancement. In the Tenpyō Hōji era, when an envoy of Bokkai was returning home, Kō Gendo was appointed Mukae-iru-Tō Taishi-shi, Envoy to Receive the Ambassador to Tang, and sent with him, and a letter was sent to Dai Kinmo, King of Bokkai, asking that Gendo and his party be escorted to Tang. Dai Kinmo sent Kō Nanshin, Hokoku Taishō, General of Great Assistance to the State, to Japan, and had him present the following memorandum: "Concerning the ninety-nine envoys come to fetch Fujiwara Kasei: at present in the Tang court An Rokuzan first rebelled and Shi Shimei afterwards raised disorder, so that all within and without is in turmoil and not yet pacified. If we were to guide the envoys, we fear they would come to harm; yet to send them back as they are would, we fear, go against the sacred intention. We have therefore sent the chief envoy Kō Gendo and ten others to Tang to bring Kasei, and have the secretary Zenjō and others return to Japan. We have accordingly dispatched this envoy to report the circumstances and to present Kasei's memorial." The edict in reply said: "That the Ambassador to Tang, Fujiwara Kasei, has long failed to return is a matter of deep concern to Us. Now the King of Bokkai has sent Nanshin to court bearing Kasei's memorial. The sincerity of the King is truly a cause of joy." Pitying Kasei for his long stay in a foreign land, the court distantly granted him the post of Monbu-kyō, Minister of Ceremonial (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi). Gendo reached Tang, but because of the disturbances an audience was not possible. After some time Emperor Shukusō ordered an inner envoy to proclaim an edict, saying: "The Tokushin Hisho-kan Fujiwara Kasei would be allowed to return in accordance with this embassy's petition, but the remnants of the rebels have not yet been pacified, and the road is full of difficulties. Let Gendo first take the southern route, return ahead, and report the circumstances" (Note: the text of the edict in the Nihon Kiryaku differs from this, and it is not known which was followed). Gendo therefore left the secretary Haguri-no-Kakeru and others behind in Tang and returned home, and Kasei in the end was unable to return. The court further distantly granted him the post of Hitachi-no-kami, Governor of Hitachi. In the eighth year of Hōji (764) he was advanced to Junior Third Rank. In the Hōki era a Silla envoy again presented a letter from Kasei. In the seventh year (776) an embassy to Tang was ordered, and a letter was sent to Kasei, saying: "You were sent on a mission to a distant foreign land and long years have passed. Your loyalty is known afar, and word of you has come. We therefore now entrust to the envoys of this visit the task of bringing you home. We grant you one hundred bolts of silk, one hundred tan of fine cloth, and one hundred large ryō of gold dust. Do your best and return home together with the envoys." In the ninth year (778), when the embassy to Tang returned, Kasei's daughter Kijō accompanied it. But a violent storm wrecked the ship, and Kijō, with the secretary Ōtomo-no-Tsugito and others, drifted ashore in Amakusa district, Higo province. Kasei in the end died in Tang. When news of his death reached Japan, he was posthumously granted Junior Second Rank (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi).

¶In the Enryaku era, a member of Kasei's household asked to give up his own residence to be made a temple, and it was named Saionin (Note: following the Ruijū Kokushi). In the twenty-second year (803) an edict was issued, saying: "Fujiwara-no-Ason Kasei, Ambassador to Tang, posthumously granted Junior Second Rank, received the command of the late emperor and went on a diplomatic mission to the land of Tang; setting out on his homeward journey, he lost his way on the sea, drifted, and in the end died in a foreign land. We therefore posthumously grant him Senior Second Rank" (Note: following the Nihon Kiryaku). In the third year of Jōwa (836), on the occasion of the dispatch of an embassy to Tang, Kasei was posthumously granted Junior First Rank, and an edict stated: "The late Ambassador to Tang, Fujiwara-no-Ason Kasei, posthumously granted Senior Second Rank, should be posthumously granted Junior First Rank. In former days, answering the emperor's choice, he fulfilled far away the mission of the imperial flower; but his homeward sails did not go well, and instead he suffered the hardships of drifting, and at length, in a foreign land, he suddenly departed from the world. When we consider his death, it is truly a cause for deep grief. We therefore specially add a favor that transcends the age, to express our thought in pursuing the departed" (Note: following the Shoku Nihon Kōki).

Fujiwara-no-Kiyokawa

¶Ōtomo-no-Komaro became Sa-shōben, Junior Controller of the Left, in the first year of Shōhō (749). In the second year (750) he became Vice-Ambassador to Tang. In the sixth year (754) he returned from Tang and reported: "At the New Year court ceremony of the twelfth year of Tenpō (Tianbao, 753), the ruler of Tang received the congratulations in the Gangen Hall. On that day my party and I were placed in the second seat of the western rank, below Tibet (Tobon), while the envoy of Silla was placed in the first seat of the eastern rank, above the land of Taishoku (the Arabs). I protested, saying: 'Silla has long been a country paying tribute to Japan. That it should now be placed in the senior seat of the east is contrary to reason.' Thereupon the general Go Kaijitsu, watching my expression, immediately moved the Silla envoy below Tibet and placed my party above Taishoku." In this year he was transferred to Sa-daiben, Senior Controller of the Left, and reached Senior Fourth Rank Lower. In the early years of Tenpyō Hōji he concurrently became Mutsu Chinju-shōgun and Azechi, Commander of the Garrison and Inspector of Mutsu. When Tachibana-no-Naramaro plotted a deposition and replacement concerning the imperial succession, Komaro joined in it; the affair was discovered, he was interrogated, and he died under the rod (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi).

¶When Komaro and his party first crossed to Tang, Kawabe-no-Sakamaro, a man of Matsura district in Hizen province, served as helmsman of the fourth ship. On the voyage home, fire broke out at the stern, with smoke and flames covering the poop, and all the people were terrified and in confusion. Sakamaro handled the rudder and turned the ship about; though his hands were burned raw he did not flinch, and in the end he put out the fire. For this merit he was granted promotion by ten grades and appointed Ingai-shuchō, Supernumerary Registrar, of his home district. In the Hōki era he was advanced to Outer Junior Fifth Rank Lower (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi). Komaro's son was Tsugito (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin).

Ōtomo-no-Komaro

¶Ōtomo-no-Tsugito became a secretary of the embassy to Tang in the sixth year of Hōki (775). In the eighth year (777) he crossed to Tang. In the ninth year (778), on the voyage home, the ship was wrecked in a violent storm and broke in two, bow and stern. Tsugito, riding in the bow section with forty-one others including Kijō, daughter of the former Ambassador to Tang Fujiwara-no-Kiyokawa, drifted ashore in Amakusa district, Higo province. The Kannushi, Chief Priest, Tsumori-no-Kunimaro, with the other secretaries, fifty-six persons in all, rode in the stern section and drifted ashore in Koshikijima district, Satsuma province. Tsugito reported as follows: "Last year, in the sixth month, the four ships put to sea together. In the seventh month we anchored at Kairyō county in Yōshū in the land of Tang, and in the eighth month we reached the Great Governor-General's Office of Yōshū. In the tenth month we set out from there, and in the first month of this year we reached Chōan. The ruler of Tang sent the inner envoy Chō Hōei to meet us and lodged us in the outer guest hall. In the third month we were summoned to audience and reported our business. In the fourth month we had audience to take our leave. On that occasion the envoy Yō Kōyō escorted us as far as Yōshū and sent us on our way. We then led the student-scholars out of Chōan. Tang also sent Chō Hōei, bearing a state letter, to establish friendly relations with a neighbor. In the sixth month we arrived at Iyō, and in the ninth month we set out from the mouth of the Yangzi and waited for a fair wind at Jōjuku county in Soshū. On the fifth day of the eleventh month we got a fair wind, and the first and second ships put out together. At the beginning of the eighth month (Note: as in the original), once again the shelves and the good timbers were damaged by wind and waves, seawater filled the hold, and the deck floated away. The Vice-Ambassador Ono-no-Iwane and thirty-seven others, and Chō Hōei and fourteen others of the Tang envoys, drowned together; only your servant slipped through and reached the corner of the bow railing, with no hope of being saved. On the eleventh, at the fifth watch, the mast fell onto the bottom of the ship, the hull was cut in two, and bow and stern separated. More than forty of us piled on one another on the bow section, about one jō square, and as the bow was about to sink we cut the ropes and clung to the rudder, and so were able barely to stay afloat. Sitting naked, as if hanging in the air, without water or grain in our mouths, six days have already passed. On the thirteenth, at the hour of the Boar, we drifted ashore at Nishinakashima in Amakusa district, Higo province. That your servant has been kept alive thus is wholly owing to the rescue of Heaven; unable to contain my utmost joy, I respectfully report this." On entering the capital he was advanced to Junior Fifth Rank Lower, became Governor of Noto, and was afterwards changed to Governor of Hōki province. In the Enryaku era he was appointed Sa-shōben, Junior Controller of the Left (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi). The Crown Prince wished to have Saeki-no-Imaemishi made a Sangi, but Fujiwara-no-Tanetsugu, Chūnagon, memorialized and had it stopped. The Crown Prince resented this and tried to kill Tanetsugu but could not (Note: following the Mizukagami). When the emperor made a progress to Heijō, the Crown Prince kept the capital, and had Tsugito and Ōtomo-no-Takeyoshi kill Tanetsugu. The emperor was enraged and deposed the Crown Prince. Tsugito and Takeyoshi were put to death as the chief plotters (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi). The details of this affair are recorded in the "Biography of Tanetsugu."

¶Tsugito's son Kunimichi was implicated in his father's case and exiled to Sado. He had literary talent, and the provincial governors and district officials sought his instruction whenever they had doubts, and all the official documents of the province were drawn up by his hand. He was pardoned and entered the capital. In the Kōnin era he held in turn the posts of Mutsu Gon-no-suke, Ise-no-suke, and Kunai Minbu-shōfu. In the fourteenth year (823) he was granted Junior Fourth Rank Lower, appointed U-chūben, Middle Controller of the Right, appointed Sangi, and concurrently became U-daiben, Senior Controller of the Right (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). Because it touched the personal name of the emperor, he changed his surname to Tomo-no-Sukune (Note: following the Nihon Kiryaku). In the Tenchō era he held in turn the posts of Kageyushi Chōkan, Director of the Bureau of Audit, Mutsu-Dewa Azechi, Inspector of Mutsu and Dewa, Governor of Sagami, and Governor of Musashi, and rose to Junior Fourth Rank Upper. In the fifth year (828) he died, at the age of sixty-one (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). His son Yoshio has a separate biography.

Kawabe-no-Sakamaro

¶Kashiwade-no-Ōoka crossed to Tang in the fourth year of Shōhō (752), following the embassy to Tang. After returning home he became Daigaku Jokyō, Assistant Lecturer at the University. In the Keiun era he submitted the following memorial: "Your servant once crossed to Tang, sought the surviving customs of the Former Sage (Confucius), and saw the shining achievements of its schools. At the Kokushikan, the Directorate of Education, there are two gates, each inscribed 'Temple of King Bunsen.' A student of the National University there, Tei Ken, told your servant: 'The present ruler greatly honors the Confucian canon and has posthumously honored Confucius as a king. The sign of the virtue of the phoenix has now appeared.' Yet in our own court, following the old ceremonial code, we still use the former title. I deeply fear that this goes against the heart that honors virtue and loses the proper way of showing reverence in full. Though Ōoka is foolish, I cannot leave unmentioned what I saw and heard, and venture to offer my shallow view and await your enlightened decision." By imperial command Confucius was accordingly called King Bunsen. In the Hōki era he rose to Outer Junior Fifth Rank Lower, became Daigaku Hakase, Professor at the University, and concurrently Bungo-no-suke (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi).

Ōtomo-no-Tsugito

¶Heguri-no-Hironari was granted Senior Sixth Rank Upper. In the fifth year of Tenpyō (733) he crossed to Tang, following the Ambassador to Tang Tajihi-no-Hironari. In the sixth year (734), setting out from Soshū to return home, he met a violent storm and drifted as far as the land of Konron (Note: according to the imperial rescript of Gensō in the Kyokkōshū, it was the land of Rin'yū). They were attacked and plundered by brigands, and more than a hundred people also died of miasmic disease; only Hironari and three others barely escaped. The king of Konron gave them food but made them live in a wretched place. The following year a Juku Konron of Kinshū came and secretly put Hironari on a ship and took him back to Tang. There he met the student-scholar Abe-no-Nakamaro, who petitioned the ruler of Tang, and he was allowed to return home by way of Bokkai. Gensō granted this and gave a ship and provisions. In the tenth year (738) he set out from Tōshū and reached Bokkai. Dai Kinmo, King of Bokkai, entertained him generously and promised to send him home the following spring. It happened that Kinmo was about to send his subject Sho Yōtoku and others as a diplomatic mission to Japan, and Hironari earnestly begged to return with them. Once at sea they again met a violent storm, and Sho Yōtoku and the others drowned. Hironari led the remaining people and managed to reach Dewa province. While Hironari was in Tang, the court, pitying his long hardship in a foreign land, distantly granted him Outer Junior Fifth Rank Lower. On his return he was granted Senior Fifth Rank Upper. Soon afterwards he became Gyōbu-no-taifu, Senior Assistant Minister of Justice, and Tōsandō Junsatsushi, Circuit Inspector of the Tōsandō; he was changed to Shikibu-no-taifu, Senior Assistant Minister of Ceremonial, and concurrently became Settsu-no-daibu. In the early years of Shōhō he was granted Junior Fourth Rank Upper and became Governor of Musashi. In the fifth year (753) he died (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi).

Ōtomo-no-Kunimichi

¶Kō Gendo's lineage is not known. Because the Ambassador to Tang Fujiwara-no-Kiyokawa had remained in Tang and been unable to return, in the third year of Tenpyō Hōji (759) Gendo was appointed Mukae-iru-Tō Taishi-shi, Envoy to Receive the Ambassador to Tang, granted Outer Junior Fifth Rank Lower, and sent off together with an envoy of Bokkai. Gendo went to Tang following the New Year's congratulatory envoy of Bokkai, Yō Hōdo and others, and the court distantly granted him the post of Governor of Noto. Emperor Shukusō permitted Kiyokawa to return and decided to send Gendo home ahead of him, granting him a set of armor, one garrison sword, one spear, and two quivers of arrows, and commanding: "Since the rebellion of An Rokuzan we have lost many weapons. Now we think to make bows using the horns of oxen as material. We hear that Japan has many oxen. When you return home, seek ox horns and send them to Us in the care of an envoy." He also ordered Sha Jiwa, Chūekisha, Court Messenger, to escort Gendo as far as Soshū, and had him consult with the governor Ri Ko to build one ship eight jō in length. For the Oshi-kako-kan, Chief of the Sailors, he sent nine men including Chin Igaku, Sesshō official of Hōyō Prefecture in Esshū, awarded the purple-and-gold fish bag, and for the sailors thirty men including Riku Chōjū, Betsushō of Hōyō Prefecture, awarded the green. When they were delivered to Dazaifu, the court sent Kamitsukeno-no-Hirohama, of Junior Fifth Rank Upper, and Hirota-no-Oimo, of Outer Junior Fifth Rank Lower, to Aki province to build ships and send the Tang envoys home. It also commanded the circuits of Tōkai, Tōsan, Hokuriku, San'in, San'yō, and Nankai: "Present 7,800 ox horns," and sent these to Tang. On entering the capital Gendo was advanced to Junior Fifth Rank Upper, became Governor of Mikawa, and also Sa-heijun-ryō, Director of the Left Bureau of Price Regulation, but later was implicated in a case and exiled (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi).

Kashiwade-no-Ōoka

¶Kurano-no-Zenjō, in the Tenpyō Hōji era, went to Bokkai as secretary of the Envoy to Receive the Ambassador to Tang. Dai Kinmo, King of Bokkai, planned to send Kō Gendo and ten others to Tang, and had Zenjō and his party return to report the circumstances. On the way back they met a violent storm and drifted ashore at Tsushima, and afterwards entered the capital. In the Hōki era he was appointed Dai-geki, Senior Secretary of the Council of State, and concurrently became Echigo-no-suke; he was changed to Chokushi-shōfu. In the first year of Ten'ō (781) he became Vice-Commander for the Pacification of the East and campaigned against the Emishi. For this merit he was advanced to Senior Fifth Rank Upper, granted the Fifth Order of Merit, became Governor of Mutsu, and concurrently Vice-General of the Garrison. In the Enryaku era he held in turn the posts of Ōkura-no-taifu, Kura-no-kami, and Governor of Sanuki, and rose to Junior Fourth Rank Lower (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi).

Heguri-no-Hironari

¶Seikai-no-Koretake was a man of Tang. His original surname was Shin (Chin); he was Sesshō official of Hōyō Prefecture in Esshū, awarded the purple-and-gold fish bag. In the Tenpyō Hōji era, when Kō Gendo returned from Tang, Tang appointed Koretake Oshi-kako-kan to escort Gendo, and he arrived at Dazaifu. The court sent the Sangi Fujiwara-no-Masaki to entertain Koretake and his party and give them gifts. Dazaifu reported: "The Tang Vice-Envoy Ki Kyōyō and thirty-seven others say with one voice: 'The Ambassador Chin Igaku's misconduct has already come to light, and he is unfit to lead his men. The Vice-Envoy Ki Kyōyō and the Shihyō, Military Officer, An Shikin are the men fit to take command. We beg your decision.' The officials of the Dazaifu have deliberated, and the claim has a basis." The edict in reply said: "As for the Ambassador and Vice-Envoy, the arrangement was made by the Tang Chūekisha Sha Jiwa together with the governor of Soshū, so it must not be changed." They were about to depart, but because wind and waves were unfavorable, the Dazaifu was ordered to supply them as in precedent. The Koma envoy Ō Shinpuku came and reported: "The Prince of Kōhei has become regent, and Shi Chōgi has proclaimed himself emperor. Tōshū and Jōyō have already passed into the power of the Shi family, and of the Ri family only Soshū remains; the roads are not open." The Dazaifu was therefore ordered: "Settle Koretake and his party," and seasonal garments were granted to them as well. Koretake in the end stayed and did not return. He was granted Junior Sixth Rank Upper. In the Hōki era he rose to Junior Fifth Rank Lower, was granted the present surname (Seikai), and was registered in the Left Capital. In the Enryaku era he became Mimasaka Gon-no-jō, Provisional Third Official of Mimasaka (Note: following the Shoku Nihongi).