Abe no Nakamaro

This image of Abe no Nakamaro is part of the ukiyo-e artist Hokusai's series One Hundred Poets.

Template:Japanese name Abe no Nakamaro (阿倍 仲麻呂, c. 701 – c. 770) was a Japanese scholar, administrator, and waka poet in the Nara period. Little is documented about his life except that he went to China in 717 and remained there until his death. His Chinese name was Chao Heng (晁 衡).

He was a descendant of Prince Hikofutsuoshi Makoto, the son of Emperor Kōgen and first son of Abe no Funamori. As a young man he was admired for having outstanding academic skills.

At age 16, in 717, he went with Kibi Makibi and the Buddhist monk Genbō to China to the Tang Dynasty capital of Chang'an for cultural research.

In China he passed the civil-service examination. Around 725 took an administrative position and was promoted in Luoyang in 728 and 731. Around 733 he received Tajihi Hironari, who would command the Japanese diplomatic mission. In 734 he tried to return to Japan but the ship to take him back sank not long into the journey, forcing him to remain in China for several more years. In 752, he tried again to return, with the mission to China led by Fujiwara no Kiyokawa, but the ship he was traveling in was wrecked and ran aground off the coast of Vietnam, and he managed to return to Chang'an in 755.

When the An Lushan Rebellion started later that year, it was unsafe to return to Japan and Nakamaro abandoned his hopes of returning to his homeland. He took several government offices and rose to the position of Governor-General of Annam between 761 and 767, residing in Hanoi. He then returned to Chang'an and was planning his return to Japan when he died in 770.

He was a close friend of the Chinese poets Li Bai and Wang Wei, among others.

Of his literary work he is famous for a poem filled with intense longing for his home in Nara. One of his poems was included in the anthology Hyakunin Isshu and in the Kokin Wakashū.

天原ふりさけ見れば春日なるみかさの山に出し月かも。
ama-no-hara furisake mireba kasuga naru mikasa no yama ni ideshi tsuki kamo.
loosely: On the horizon—isn't that the same moon that rises in spring over the Hill of Mikasa?

— Kokin Wakashū 9:406

Other notable poets of this period to write such homesick poems include Yamanoue no Okura, though he, unlike Nakamaro, did return to Japan.