Background Fuhito no Fujiwara was born in 659 in Japan. The second son of Fujiwara no Kamatari. He was a powerful member of the imperial court of Japan.
Achievements He was ordered by Emperor Mommu to join with Prince Osakabe and others in compiling a ritswryo, or code of laws modeled on those of China; on completion, the work was presented to Empress Gemmei and is known as the Taiho ritswryo from the name of the era in which it was com¬piled. The ritswryo comprises two kinds of laws, the ritsu, penal code laws, which deal with criminal offenses and punishments, and the ryo, civil code laws, which regulate the functioning of the type of centralized bureaucratic system of government at this time. Fuhito was chosen to participate in the compilation of the code because his father, Kamatari, along with Prince Naka no Oe, had in 646 drawn up the Taika Reform Edict, which laid the foundation for the establishment of such a bureaucratic system of govern¬ment. The code compiled at this time remained in effect until the Heian period. In 718 a group headed by Fuhito began working on a revision of the Taiho ritswryo, but the work was suspended with Fuhito’s death in 720 and was only brought to completion in 757 by Fuhito’s grandson, Fujiwara no Nakamaro. The revised version of the code is known as the Toro ritswryo.