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Emperor Seinei

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Emperor Seinei
清寧天皇
Emperor of Japan
Reign480 – 484 (traditional)[1]
PredecessorYūryaku
SuccessorKenzō
(or possibly Princess Iitoyo)
BornShiraka (白髪)
444[2][3][4]
Died484(484-00-00) (aged 39–40)[5]
Iware no Mikakuri Palace
Burial
Kawachi no Sakado no hara no misasagi (河内坂門原陵) (Osaka)
Posthumous name
Chinese-style shigō:
Emperor Seinei (清寧天皇)

Japanese-style shigō:
Shiraka-no-takehiro-kunioshiwaka-yamato-neko no Sumeramikoto (白髪武広国押稚日本根子天皇)
HouseImperial House of Japan
FatherEmperor Yūryaku[2]
MotherKatsuragi no Karahime [ja][6]

Emperor Seinei (清寧天皇, Seinei-tennō) (444 – 484) was the 22nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.[7][8]

[9]

No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign, but he is conventionally considered to have reigned from 480 to 484.[10]

Protohistoric narrative

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The Japanese have traditionally accepted this sovereign's historical existence, and a mausoleum (misasagi) for Seinei is currently maintained. The following information available is taken from the pseudo-historical Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, which are collectively known as Kiki (記紀) or Japanese chronicles. These chronicles include legends and myths, as well as potential historical facts that have since been exaggerated and/or distorted over time. It is recorded in the Kiki that Seinei was born to Katsuragi no Karahime (葛城韓媛) sometime in 444 AD, and was given the name Shiraka (白髪皇子).[3]

[11]

According to Kojiki and Nihonshoki, he was a son of Emperor Yūryaku and his consort Katsuragi no Karahime. Seinei's full sister was Princess Takuhatahime. His name in birth was Shiraka (白髪皇子). It is said that the color of his hair was white since birth.[12] After the death of his father, Seinei won the fight against Prince Hoshikawa, his brother, for the throne and so succeeded his father.

Seinei fathered no children; however, two grandsons of the 17th Emperor, Emperor Richū, were found—later to ascend as Prince Woke and Prince Oke. Seinei adopted them as his heirs.[13]

Historical assessment

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Seinei was a 5th-century monarch.[14] The reign of Emperor Kinmei (c. 509 – 571 AD), the 29th emperor,[15] is the first for which contemporary historiography is able to assign verifiable dates;[16] however, the conventionally accepted names and dates of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of Emperor Kanmu (737–806), the 50th sovereign of the imperial dynasty.[17]

Seinei's contemporary title would not have been tennō, as most historians believe this title was not introduced until the reigns of Emperor Tenmu and Empress Jitō. Rather, it was presumably Sumeramikoto or Amenoshita Shiroshimesu Ōkimi (治天下大王), meaning "the great king who rules all under heaven". Alternatively, Seinei might have been referred to as ヤマト大王/大君 or the "Great King of Yamato".

The actual site of Seinei's grave is not known.[8] The emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) at Osaka.

The Imperial Household Agency designates this location as Seinei's mausoleum. It is formally named Kawachi no Sakado no hara no misasagi.[18]

See also

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Notes

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Japanese Imperial kamon — a stylized chrysanthemum blossom
  1. ^ "Genealogy of the Emperors of Japan" (PDF). Kunaicho.go.jp. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 22, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Genealogy". Reichsarchiv (in Japanese). 30 April 2010. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Joseph Henry Longford (1923). "List of Emperors: II. The Dawn of History and The great Reformers". Japan. Houghton Mifflin. p. 304.
  4. ^ Kenneth Henshall (2013). Historical Dictionary of Japan to 1945. Scarecrow Press. p. 488. ISBN 9780810878723.
  5. ^ Brown, Delmer M. (1979). "(23) Emperor Seinei". A Translation and Study of the Gukanshō, an Interpretative History of Japan Written in 1219. Gukanshō. p. 258. ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0.
  6. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard (1915). "Table of Emperors Mothers". The Imperial Family of Japan. Ponsonby Memorial Society. p. xiii.
  7. ^ Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon (in French). Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. pp. 28–29.
  8. ^ a b "雄略天皇 (22)". Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō) (in Japanese). Retrieved December 27, 2024.
  9. ^ Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 28–29; Brown, Delmer M. (1979). Gukanshō, pp. 258–259; Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki, pp. 115–116.
  10. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan, p. 41.
  11. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard (1915). "Seinei (480–484)". The Imperial Family of Japan. Ponsonby Memorial Society. p. 14.
  12. ^ Titsingh, p. 29; n.b., there is speculation that this unusual hair color suggests albinism.
  13. ^ Aston, William. (1998). Nihongi, Vol. 1, pp. 373–377.
  14. ^ Kelly, Charles F. "Kofun Culture," Japanese Archaeology. 27 April 2009.
  15. ^ Titsingh, pp. 34–36; Brown, pp. 261–262; Varley, pp. 123–124.
  16. ^ Hoye, Timothy. (1999). Japanese Politics: Fixed and Floating Worlds, p. 78; excerpt, "According to legend, the first Japanese Emperor was Jinmu. Along with the next 13 Emperors, Jinmu is not considered an actual, historical figure. Historically verifiable Emperors of Japan date from the early sixth century with Kinmei.
  17. ^ Aston, William. (1896). Nihongi, pp. 109.
  18. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, p. 419.

References

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Regnal titles
Preceded by Emperor of Japan:
Seinei
11 February 480 – 27 February 484
(traditional dates) 		Succeeded by
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