Empress Genshō

Empress Genshō (680–748), previously Princess Hidaka, was a daughter of Prince Kusakabe and Empress Genmei, and an elder sister of Emperor Monmu. In 715, Genmei yielded the throne to her. Monmu's son, the future Emperor Shōmu, was still a young crown prince. Genshō ruled until 724, when she abdicated to him. [S01, S04]

During her reign, officials led by Fujiwara no Fuhito worked on the Yōrō legal code; its traditional completion date of 718 remains disputed, and it was implemented much later. Prince Toneri and his collaborators presented the Nihon shoki, the royal historical chronicle, in 720. Her government sent an embassy to Tang China in 717 and confronted resistance in Ōsumi in 720. In 723, a land-reclamation law granted extended possession of new fields according to the irrigation work undertaken, encouraging cultivation while retaining limits on tenure. [S01, S02, S03, S05]

After abdication, Genshō continued to hold an important position as retired sovereign. She died in 748. The Man'yōshū poetry anthology preserves verse attributed to her: one poem of mourning was performed at a gathering in 755, seven years after her death. That later performance records the transmission of her poetry; it is not an event in her own lifetime. [S01, S04]