Emperor Kōkaku

Kōkaku
Emperor of Japan

Kōkaku
Reign 1780–1817
Predecessor Go-Momozono
Successor Ninkō
Born (1771-09-23)23 September 1771
Died 11 December 1840(1840-12-11) (aged 69)
Burial Nochi no tsuki no wa no misasagi (Kyoto)
Father Prince Kan'in-no-miya Sukehito-shinnō
Religion Shinto

Emperor Kōkaku (光格天皇 Kōkaku-tennō, September 23, 1771 – December 11, 1840) was the 119th emperor of Japan,[1] according to the traditional order of succession.[2]

Kōkaku's reign spanned the years from 1780 through 1817.[3] As of 2016, Kōkaku remains the most recent emperor of Japan to have abdicated from the throne.

Events of Kōkaku's life

He reigned from December 16, 1779, until May 7, 1817.

As a younger son of an imperial collateral branch the Kan'in house, it was originally expected that he (then called Tomohito-shinnō) would go into the priesthood at the Shugoin Temple. However, in 1779, the sonless and dying emperor Go-Momozono hurriedly adopted him on his deathbed.

Kōkaku was very talented and had a zeal for scholarship, reviving festivals at the Iwashimizu and Kamono shrines, and working hard at reviving ceremonies surrounding the Imperial Court. The Bakufu gave his father the honorary title of Retired Emperor (Daijō Tennō, 太上天皇). Genealogically, Kōkaku is the founder of the dynastic imperial branch currently on the throne. Kōkaku is the lineal ancestor of all the succeeding emperors of Japan up to present monarch, Akihito.

During Kōkaku's reign, the Imperial Court attempted to re-assert some of its authority by proposing a relief program to the Bakufu at the time of the Great Tenmei famine (1782–1788) and receiving information about negotiations with Russia over disputes in the north.

In addition, he attempted to re-assert some of the Imperial authority over the Shōgun (or bakufu). He undertook this by first implementing a relief program during the Great Tenmei Famine, which not only undermined the effectiveness of the bakufu to look after their subjects, but also focused the subjects' attention back to the Imperial household.

He also took an active interest in foreign affairs; keeping himself informed about the border dispute with Russia to the north, as well as keeping himself abreast of knowledge regarding foreign currency, both Chinese and European. The new era name of Tenmei (meaning "Dawn") was created to mark the enthronement of new emperor. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in An'ei 11, on the 2nd day of the 4th month.

Change of era: 1789 Kansei gannen (寛政元年?): The new era name of Kansei (meaning "Tolerant Government" or "Broad-minded Government") was created to mark a number of calamities including a devastating fire at the Imperial Palace. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Tenmei 9, on the 25th day of the 1st month.

The broad panoply of changes and new initiatives of the Tokugawa shogunate during this era became known as the Kansei Reforms.

Matsudaira Sadanobu (1759–1829) was named the shogun's chief councilor (rōjū) in the summer of 1787; and early in the next year, he became the regent for the 11th shogun, Tokugawa Ienari.[8] As the chief administrative decision-maker in the bakufu hierarchy, he was in a position to effect radical change; and his initial actions represented an aggressive break with the recent past. Sadanobu's efforts were focused on strengthening the government by reversing many of the policies and practices which had become commonplace under the regime of the previous shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu. These reform policies could be interpreted as a reactionary response to the excesses of his rōjū predecessor, Tanuma Okitsugu (1719–1788);[9] and the result was that the Tanuma-initiated, liberalizing reforms within the bakufu and the relaxation of sakoku (Japan's "closed-door" policy of strict control of foreign merchants) were reversed or blocked.[10]

Change of era: February 5, 1801 (Kyōwa gannen (享和元年?)): a new era name was created because of the belief that the 58th year of every cycle of the Chinese zodiac brings great changes. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Kansei 13.

Change of era: February 11, 1804 (Bunka gannen (文化元年?)): The new era name of Bunka (meaning "Culture" or "Civilization") was created to mark the start of a new 60-year cycle of the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch system of the Chinese Calendar which was on New Year's Day, the new moon day day of 2 November 1804. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Kyōwa 4.

In 1817, Kōkaku abdicated in favor of his son, Emperor Ninkō. In the two centuries before Kōkaku's reign most emperors died young or were forced to abdicate. Kōkaku was the first Japanese monarch to remain on the throne past the age of 40 since the abdication of Emperor Ōgimachi in 1586.

The last Emperor to rule as a Jōkō (上皇), an emperor who abdicated in favor of a successor, was Emperor Kōkaku (1779–1817). The Emperor later created an incident called the "Songo incident" (the "respectful title incident"). The emperor came into dispute with the Tokugawa Shogunate about his intention to give a title of Abdicated Emperor (Daijō-ten'nō) to his father, who was an Imperial Prince Sukehito.[17]

After Kōkaku's death in 1840, he was enshrined in the Imperial mausoleum, Nochi no Tsukinowa no Higashiyama no misasagi (後月輪東山陵), which is at Sennyū-ji in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto. Also enshrined in Tsuki no wa no misasagi, at Sennyū-ji are this emperor's immediate Imperial predecessors since Emperor Go-Mizunoo – Meishō, Go-Kōmyō, Go-Sai, Reigen, Higashiyama, Nakamikado, Sakuramachi, Momozono, Go-Sakuramachi and Go-Momozono. This mausoleum complex also includes misasagi for Kōkaku's immediate successors – Ninkō and Kōmei.[18] Empress Dowager Yoshikō is also entombed at this Imperial mausoleum complex.[19]

Kugyō

Kugyō (公卿) is a collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre-Meiji eras. Even during those years in which the court's actual influence outside the palace walls was minimal, the hierarchic organization persisted.

In general, this elite group included only three to four men at a time. These were hereditary courtiers whose experience and background would have brought them to the pinnacle of a life's career. During Kōkaku's reign, this apex of the Daijō-kan included:

Eras of Kōkaku's reign

The years of Kōkaku's reign are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengō.[4]

See also

Notes

Japanese Imperial kamon — a stylized chrysanthemum blossom
  1. ↑ Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō): 光格天皇 (119)
  2. ↑ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan, pp. 120–122.
  3. ↑ Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 420–421.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Titsingh, p. 420.
  5. ↑ Screech, T. (2006), Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822, pp. 146–148; Titsingh, p. 420.
  6. ↑ Screech, T. (2000). Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760–1829, pp. 123, 125.
  7. ↑ Screech, Secret Memoirs, pp. 152–154, 249–250
  8. ↑ Totman, Conrad. Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988, p. 224
  9. ↑ Hall, J. (1955). Tanuma Okitsugu: Forerunner of Modern Japan, 1719-1788. pp. 131-142.
  10. ↑ Screech, T. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822, pp. 148-151, 163-170, 248.
  11. ↑ Nosco, Peter. (1997). Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture, p. 20.
  12. ↑ Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice. (2002). "Confucianism in Japan," in Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy, p. 668, p. 668, at Google Books; excerpt, "Scholars vary in their opinion on how far this heterodoxy was enforced and whether this first official insistence on heterodoxy constituted the high point of Confucianism in government affairs or signalled its decline."
  13. 1 2 3 4 NOAA/Japan "Significant Earthquake Database" -- U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC)
  14. ↑ Cullen, L.M. (2003). A History of Japan, 1582-1941: Internal and External Worlds, pp. 117, 163.
  15. ↑ Sugita Genpaku. (1969). Dawn of Western Science in Japan: Rangaku Kotohajime, p. xvi.
  16. ↑ National Ditigial Archives of Japan, ...see caption describing image of scroll
  17. ↑ National Archives of Japan ...Sakuramachiden Gyokozu: see caption text
  18. ↑ Ponsonby-Fane, p. 423.
  19. ↑ Ponsonby-Fane, pp. 333–334.

References

External links


Regnal titles
Preceded by
Emperor Go-Momozono		 Emperor of Japan:
Kōkaku
1780–1817 		Succeeded by
Emperor Ninkō
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