A Nara-period scholar sent to Tang China in 717, where he passed the civil service examination and served Emperor Xuanzong under the Chinese name Chao Heng. He befriended the poets Li Bai and Wang Wei. His attempt to return home in 753 ended in shipwreck off Vietnam, and he died in Chang'an without seeing Japan again. His poem gazing at the moon over Mount Mikasa, said to have been composed at a farewell banquet, is one of the most beloved expressions of homesickness in Japanese literature.
天の原 ふりさけ見れば 春日なる
三笠の山に 出でし月かも
Ama no hara furisake mireba Kasuga naru / Mikasa no yama ni ideshi tsuki kamo
Looking far up into the wide sky, I see the moon rising — the very same moon that once rose over Mount Mikasa in Kasuga, my homeland.