This document offers a glimpse of the personal life of someone working in the official Scriptorium administered by the Nara-period government as a kyōshi, one of the scribes who copied Buddhist sutras. The scribe is named Mako no Shimanushi (dates unknown), and he requests four days leave to stay on at home and care for a gravely ill relative. This treasured transmission of the voice and experience of a lower-level bureaucrat who lived during the Nara period (710–794) comes from the Shōsōin.
 
NOJIRI TadashiEnglish by Mary Lewine 
Buddhist Art Paradise: Jewels of the Nara National Museum. Nara National Museum, 2021.7, p.330, no.227.