Education
He studied Buddhism in China under the eminent monk Chih-chou and is said to have won the admiration of the T’ang emperor
He studied Buddhism in China under the eminent monk Chih-chou and is said to have won the admiration of the T’ang emperor
In 716 he was ordered to accompany the Kentoshi, the envoy to the T’ang court in China. In 735 he returned to Japan, bringing with him books to the amount of some five thousand scrolls as well as various Buddhist images. He was rewarded by the court with the high ecclesiastical rank of sojo, and after curing Emperor Shomu’s mother of an illness, he came to enjoy the personal trust of the emperor. He acted as advisor to the power-ful official Tachibana no Moroe and, along with Kibi no Makibi, wielded great authority in the government.
In 740 Fujiwara no Hirotsugu, disapproving of the way in which Gembo and the others of his party exercised power, began an uprising in an attempt to overthrow them, but he was defeated by the military forces of the court. Following this disturbance, Fujiwara no Nakamaro came to power and in 745 dispatched Gembo to northern Kyushu to supervise the building of the Kanzeon-ji, in effect a form of exile designed to strip him of his authority at court. He died the following year at his assigned post in Kyushu.