Empress Kōmyō (光明皇后) (701 – 23 July 760), born Fujiwara Asukabehime (藤原 安宿媛), was the consort of Japanese Emperor Shōmu (701–756) during the Nara Period.

During her life she was also known as Asukabehime (安宿媛), Kōmyōshi (光明子), and Tōsanjō (藤三娘), literally the third Fujiwara daughter.

[4] An extra-codal office was created for the queen-consort, the Kōgōgūshiki; this bureaucratic innovation continued into the Heian period.

[5] She was an influential political figure in her own right and helped balance tensions between Fujiwara and non-Fujiwara factions at court.

[6] Kōmyō's own faith appears in the historical record from 727, when she began copying sutras for the safe birth of her son.

She was likely the most active patron of sutra copying in the eighth-century, operating a prolific scriptorium first tied to her household and then connected to Tōdaiji.

She was also said to have founded numerous temples with a number claiming she was the child of a doe impregnated by drinking the urine of a mountain ascetic.

[10] She remained a symbol of the ideal Buddhist woman in the modern period and continues to be venerated at Hokkeji today.

Her Daughter, Imperial Princess Abe was the only woman named crown prince in the history of Japan.