The Death of Shōmu and Kōmyō's Donation
The retired Emperor Shōmu died in 756. His widow Kōmyō, mother of the reigning Empress Kōken, marked the forty-ninth-day memorial with an offering to the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji. A catalogue, the Kokka Chinpō-chō, recorded treasures associated with Shōmu, while the separate Shujuyaku-chō listed sixty kinds of medicinal substances in twenty-one containers.
The medicines were dedicated with a wish for the relief of the sick, as well as for Shōmu's spiritual benefit. An actual withdrawal is recorded later in 756, when ginseng was released to the Seyaku-in, an institution providing charitable medical care. The stated purpose of the gift and this documented use are more specific than assuming every donated substance reached a patient.
Further offerings followed in 756 and 758, including furnishings and calligraphy. The catalogues and surviving objects became part of the Shōsōin repository's collection. They connect the imperial memorial to the temple's custody of objects and medicines, while also distinguishing this sequence of donations from other materials that entered the repository.
