Emperor Shōmu

Emperor Shōmu (701–756), the 45th emperor of Japan, reigned from 724 to 749. A devout Buddhist, he ordered provincial monasteries and nunneries in 741 and in 743 commissioned Tōdai-ji's sixteen-metre Vairocana Buddha in Nara.

His rule saw the Fujiwara no Hirotsugu rebellion of 740, after which he moved the capital to Kuni-kyō. He made the Fujiwara-born Kōmyō the first empress from outside the imperial family, then abdicated in 749 for his daughter Kōken, took Buddhist vows, and attended the Buddha's consecration in 752.