Empress Kōmyō

Empress Kōmyō (光明皇后, Kōmyō-kōgō^?) (701–760) was the Nara period consort of Japanese Emperor Shōmu (701–756).

A member of the Fujiwara clan, her father was Fujiwara no Fuhito and her mother was Agata Inukai no Michiyo (県犬養三千代). During her life she was also known as Asukabehime 安宿媛, Kōmyōshi (光明子), and Tōsanjō 藤三娘. She is buried in Nara Prefecture's Hōrenji-cho in the mausoleum Sahoyama no Higashi no Misasagi 佐保山東陵 near Emperor Shōmu in the southern mausoleum.

She married Emperor Shōmu at the age of 16, and gave birth to the princess Abe at the age of 18. She gave birth to her first son at the age of 27. Unfortunately, he died soon after birth. The Fujiwara clan insisted that Prince Nagaya had killed the prince by the curse. She became an empress at the age of 29; and she was the first to be raised to the rank of kogo in historical times.

A ritsuryo office was created for the empress-consort, the Kogogushiki; and this bureaucratic innovation continued into the Heian period.

Artifacts connected with Kōmyō and Shōmu are among the treasures housed at the Shōsōin. Four of her poems are included in the Man'yōshū imperial anthology. As a devout adherent of Buddhism, Kōmyō encouraged the construction and enrichment of various temples, including Shinyakushi-ji (Nara), Hokke-ji (Nara), Kōfuku-ji (Nara), and Tōdai-ji (Nara).

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