{{Short description|Japanese scholar (695–775)}} [[Image:Kibino Makibi.jpg|thumb|Kibi no Makibi in a book illustration by [[Kikuchi Yōsai]]]] {{family name hatnote|Kibi|lang=Japanese}} {{nihongo|'''Kibi no Asomi Makibi'''|吉備 朝臣 真備||extra=695 – November 3, 775}} was a [[Japanese people|Japanese]] scholar and noble during the [[Nara period]].<ref name="nussbaum512">[[Louis-Frédéric|Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric]]. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC&pg=PA512&dq= "Kibi no Makibi"] in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 512.</ref> Also known as {{nihongo|'''Minister Kibi'''|吉備大臣|Kibi Daijin}}.
==Early life== Kibi no Makibi was born in Shimotsumichi County, [[Bitchu Province]] (present-day [[Kurashiki, Okayama|Kurashiki]], [[Okayama Prefecture]]) as ''Shimotsumichi-no Asomi Makibi'', as a son of Shimotsumichi-no Asomi Kunikatsu. Shimotsumichi clan was a line of local elites and came from the greater [[Kibi clan]]. Kibi was also the ancient name of the area he came from ([[Kibi Province]]), which encompassed Bitchu, [[Bizen Province|Bizen]], [[Bingo Province|Bingo]] and [[Mimasaka Province|Mimasaka]] Provinces.
==Career== In 717-718, Kibi was part of the [[Japanese missions to Tang China|Japanese mission to Tang China]] (''Kentōshi'') with [[Abe no Nakamaro]]<ref>Nussbaum, [https://books.google.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC&pg=PA3&dq= "Abe no Nakamaro"] at p. 3.</ref> and [[Genbō]].<ref>Nussbaum, [https://books.google.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC&pg=PA235&dq= "Genbō"] at p. 235.</ref> Kibi stayed in China for 17 years before returning to Japan.<ref>Fogel, Joshua. (1996). {{Google books|MC6L3Re0yqgC|''The Literature of Travel in the Japanese Rediscovery of China,'' p. 22|page=22}}; excerpt, "Like Genbō, Kibi no Makibi remained in China after the embassy ships returned to Japan, returning home himself at the same time as Genbō seventeen years later."</ref> He is credited with bringing back a number of things, introducing to Japan the game of ''[[go (board game)|go]]'' and the art of embroidery.<ref name="nussbaum512"/>
In 737, he received promotion to the junior fifth rank. His influence at court triggered the [[Fujiwara no Hirotsugu Rebellion]] of 740. In 751, at the senior fourth rank (upper grade), he received an appointment as vice-ambassador to the [[Tang dynasty]] and traveled to [[China]] the following year, returning to Japan in 753.
Kibi spent some years in [[Kyūshū]] as the assistant administrator of [[Dazaifu, Fukuoka|Dazaifu]] (the principal governmental post on the island); he returned to [[Nara, Nara|Nara]].
In 764, he was made head of the project to construct [[Tōdai-ji]].<ref name="nussbaum512"/> Promotion to the junior third rank followed.
He was appointed to head an army to put down the uprising by [[Fujiwara no Nakamaro]]. Reaching the second rank in 765, he took the offices of [[Dainagon|Major Councillor]], then [[Udaijin|Minister of the Right]]. In 770, he supported a losing candidate for the throne and submitted his resignation from office. The court accepted only his resignation from military office and retained him as Minister of the Right. He finally resigned in 771, devoting himself to the study of [[Confucianism|Confucian]] principles and their applications in Japanese administration.<ref name="nussbaum512"/> Kibi died in 775 at the age of 80.
Kibi has sometimes been credited with inventing the ''[[katakana]]'' phonetic syllabary and writing system.<ref name="nussbaum512"/>
A late 12th century [[emaki|narrative handscroll]] in the collection of the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]] depicting Kibi's journey to China is one of the earliest of all Japanese narrative pictorial handscrolls (''e-maki'') known. It is believed to have been commissioned to help support the prestige of a school of divination that claimed connections to Kibi. Its purchase by the museum in 1932 directly led to the strengthening of Japanese laws against the removal of cultural properties of particular importance from the country.<ref>Morse, Anne Nishimura et al. ''MFA Highlights: Arts of Japan''. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Publications, 2008. p. 194.</ref>
==See also== * [[Japanese missions to Imperial China]] * [[Japanese missions to Tang China]]
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *Papinot, Edmond (1910). ''Historical and geographical dictionary of Japan''. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha. *''Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan'' (1995). Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd.
==External links== {{commonscatinline}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070224100213/http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true Minister Kibi's Trip to China handscroll at MFA.org]
{{Notable foreigners who visited China}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kibi, Makibi}} [[Category:695 births]] [[Category:775 deaths]] [[Category:Kuge]] [[Category:Academics from Kurashiki]] [[Category:Japanese Confucianists]] [[Category:People of the Asuka period]] [[Category:People of the Nara period]] [[Category:People from Dazaifu, Fukuoka]] [[Category:Japanese ambassadors to the Tang dynasty]] [[Category:Onmyōji]] [[Category:Deified Japanese men]] [[Category:Kibi clan]] {{Gion cult}} {{Kibi clan}}