High degree - Kou Gendo

Japanese: 高元度 - こう・げんど

Years of birth: Years of birth and death unknown. An official from the Nara period. In January of the third year of the Tenpyo Hoji era (759), he was appointed as an ambassador to welcome Fujiwara no Kiyokawa, who had gone to Tang China as a Japanese envoy in 752 and was unable to return home. In February, he attempted to travel to Tang China via Bohai with Goryeo (Bohai) envoy Yang Seonggyeong, who was returning home. In October, Judge Naizan Zensei, an envoy from Bohai to welcome Fujiwara no Kiyokawa, returned from Bohai, and according to a document from Chudai (equivalent to the Ministry of Central Affairs in Japan) brought by the Bohai envoy who arrived in Japan at the same time, due to the An Lushan Rebellion (755-763), security within Tang China was unstable, so of the 99-person party, only 11 people, including Gao Wondo, were to go to Tang China, and Zensei and the others were to return home. In August of the fifth year, Gao Wondo and his party returned home. According to this report, he took the Bohai road and entered the Tang Dynasty together with Yang Fangqing, the New Year's envoy, and was given armor, swords, spears, arrows, etc. as examples of weapons, but because the journey was still uncertain, an imperial decree prevented Qinghe from returning home, and only Gao Yuandu and his men returned by the southern route. On his return, the Tang emperor, who was suffering from a shortage of weapons, asked for ox horns to make bows, so in October he collected 7,800 ox horns from the six provinces of Donghai, Dongshan, Hokuriku, Sanin, Sanyo, and Nankai and presented them to the Tang Dynasty. In November of the same year, he was promoted from Junior Fifth Rank to Junior Fifth Rank, likely as a reward for his efforts in traveling to Tang. He then served as the governor of Mikawa, and in July of the 7th year, he was transferred to the position of Chief of the Left Heijunsho.

(Yoshiki Kiyota)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

生年：生没年不詳
奈良時代の官人。天平勝宝4(752)年遣唐使として唐に渡ったまま帰国できなくなっていた藤原清河を迎えに行くために,天平宝字3(759)年1月迎入唐大使に任命された。2月帰国する高麗(渤海)国使楊承慶らと共に渤海経由で唐へ行こうとした。10月,藤原清河を迎えに行く使の判官内蔵全成が渤海国から帰国,同時に来日した渤海国使がもたらした中台(日本でいえば中務省)の文書によれば,安史の乱(755～763)により,唐国内の治安が不安なため,一行99人のうち,高元度ら11人だけが唐に赴き全成らは帰国させるとのことであった。5年8月,高元度一行は帰国。その報告によれば,渤海道をとって賀正使楊方慶らと共に唐に入り,兵器の見本として甲冑や刀,槍,矢などを与えられたが,未だ道中が不安であるとして,勅によって清河の帰国は止められ,高元度らだけが南路をとって帰ってきたという。帰国の際,武器の不足に悩む唐の皇帝から,弓を作るための牛角を求められたため,10月に東海,東山,北陸,山陰,山陽,南海の6道諸国から牛角7800隻を集めて唐に贈った。同11月,外従五位下から従五位下に昇進,渡唐の労を賞したものであろう。さらに三河守を経て,7年7月左平準署の長官に転任した。

(清田善樹)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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