Ō no Yasumaro

Ō no Yasumaro (died 723) was a Japanese nobleman, bureaucrat and chronicler. He is most famous for compiling and editing the Kojiki, the oldest surviving Japanese history, with the assistance of Hieda no Are. Empress Genmei charged him in 711 with writing it, using the differing clan chronicles and native myths that survived, and he presented it to her in three volumes in 712. He is also thought to have taken an active part in compiling the Nihon Shoki, finished in 720. He rose through court ranks to Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, and in 716 became head of the Ō clan. His tomb in Nara was found in 1979, when a copper plate gravestone naming him was discovered, and it was designated a National Historic Site in 1980.