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| {{Infobox royalty | {{Infobox royalty | ||
| | name = Jimmu | | name = Jimmu | ||
| | succession= ] | | succession= ] | ||
| | image = Tennō Jimmu detail 01.jpg | | image = Tennō Jimmu detail 01.jpg | ||
| | reign = |
| reign = February 18, 660 BC – 9 April 585 BC (traditional) | ||
| | successor = ] | | successor = ] | ||
| | spouse=]<br>] | | spouse=]<br>] | ||
| Line 10: | Line 10: | ||
| | father = ] | | father = ] | ||
| | mother = ] | | mother = ] | ||
| | birth_date = |
| birth_date = February 13, 711 BC (traditional) | ||
| | birth_place = unknown | | birth_place = unknown | ||
| | death_date = |
| death_date = April 9, 585 BC (aged 126) | ||
| | death_place = Japan | | death_place = Japan | ||
| | place of burial= {{nihongo||畝傍山東北陵|''Unebi-yama no ushitora no sumi no misasagi''}} (]) | | place of burial= {{nihongo||畝傍山東北陵|''Unebi-yama no ushitora no sumi no misasagi''}} (]) | ||
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| {{Nihongo|'''Emperor Jimmu'''|神武天皇|Jinmu-]}} is the ]name for the legendary ] ] in the traditional ]. Both the ] and the ] give his native Japanese name as {{nihongo||神倭伊波礼|'''Kamu-Yamatö-ipare-biko'''}}<ref>神倭伊波礼琵古命:''Kamu-Yamatö-ipare-biko'' (''nö-mikötö'') ], tr.''Kojiki'', University of Tokyo Press, 1969 p.488</ref> ''Ipare'' (modern Japanese ''iware'') indicates a ] whose precise purport is unclear. | {{Nihongo|'''Emperor Jimmu'''|神武天皇|Jinmu-]}} is the ]name for the legendary ] ] in the traditional ]. Both the ] and the ] give his native Japanese name as {{nihongo||神倭伊波礼|'''Kamu-Yamatö-ipare-biko'''}}<ref>神倭伊波礼琵古命:''Kamu-Yamatö-ipare-biko'' (''nö-mikötö'') ], tr.''Kojiki'', University of Tokyo Press, 1969 p.488</ref> ''Ipare'' (modern Japanese ''iware'') indicates a ] whose precise purport is unclear. | ||
| The ] of Japan traditionally based its claim to the throne on its putative descent from the sun-goddess ] via Jimmu's great grandfather ].<ref> Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, University of Hawai'i Press, 1995 pp.106-7.</ref> While his accession is traditionally dated to February 11 660 BC, modern historians regard the entire chronicles regarding the earliest Emperors as fabrications based on legend and myth.<ref name="kelly">Kelly, Charles F. |
The ] of Japan traditionally based its claim to the throne on its putative descent from the sun-goddess ] via Jimmu's great grandfather ].<ref> Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, University of Hawai'i Press, 1995 pp.106-7.</ref> While his accession is traditionally dated to February 11, 660 BC, modern historians regard the entire chronicles regarding the earliest Emperors as fabrications based on legend and myth.<ref name="kelly">Kelly, Charles F. April 27, 2009.</ref><ref name="Understanding Japanese Religion p. 145">Kitagawa, Joseph. (1987). {{Google books|h1xcc4cGL5cC|''On Understanding Japanese Religion,'' p. 145|page=145}}; excerpt, "... emphasis on the undisrupted chronological continuity from myths to legends and from legends to history, it is difficult to determine where one ends and the next begins. At any rate, the first ten legendary emperors are clearly not reliable historical records."</ref> | ||
| ==Mythical character== | ==Mythical character== | ||
| The conventionally accepted names and dates of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of ] (737–806), the 50th sovereign of the ].<ref name="aston109-137">]. (1896). ''Nihongi,'' pp. 109–137.</ref> The name Jimmu''-tennō'' was ] assigned by later generations.<ref>]. (1915). {{Google books|itxxAAAAMAAJ|''A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the end of the Meiji Era,'' p. 21|page=21}}; excerpt, "Posthumous names for the earthly ''Mikados'' were invented in the reign of Emperor Kammu (782–805), i.e., after the date of the compilation of the ''Records'' and the ''Chronicles.''</ref> | The conventionally accepted names and dates of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of ] (737–806), the 50th sovereign of the ].<ref name="aston109-137">]. (1896). ''Nihongi,'' pp. 109–137.</ref> The name Jimmu''-tennō'' was ] assigned by later generations.<ref>]. (1915). {{Google books|itxxAAAAMAAJ|''A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the end of the Meiji Era,'' p. 21|page=21}}; excerpt, "Posthumous names for the earthly ''Mikados'' were invented in the reign of Emperor Kammu (782–805), i.e., after the date of the compilation of the ''Records'' and the ''Chronicles.''</ref> | ||
| According to the legendary account in the ], Emperor Jimmu would have been born on |
According to the legendary account in the ], Emperor Jimmu would have been born on February 13, 711 BC (the first day of the first month of the ]), and died, again according to legend, on March 11, 585 BC (both dates according to the ] ). | ||
| ==Legendary narrative== | ==Legendary narrative== | ||
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| The fluidity of Jimmu before the compilation of the ''Kojiki'' and of the ''Nihon Shoki'' is demonstrated by somewhat earlier texts that place three dynasties as successors to the mythological Yamato state. According to these texts, Jimmu's dynasty was supplanted by that of ], whose dynasty was supplanted by that of ].<ref>Ooms, Herman. ''Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: the Tenmu Dynasty, 650–800''. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009</ref> The ''Kojiki'' and the ''Nihon Shoki'' then combined these three mythical dynasties into one long and continuous genealogy. | The fluidity of Jimmu before the compilation of the ''Kojiki'' and of the ''Nihon Shoki'' is demonstrated by somewhat earlier texts that place three dynasties as successors to the mythological Yamato state. According to these texts, Jimmu's dynasty was supplanted by that of ], whose dynasty was supplanted by that of ].<ref>Ooms, Herman. ''Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: the Tenmu Dynasty, 650–800''. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009</ref> The ''Kojiki'' and the ''Nihon Shoki'' then combined these three mythical dynasties into one long and continuous genealogy. | ||
| ], ].]]No site for Jimmu's ] is clearly identified by tradition or mythology.<ref name="kunaicho">] (''Kunaichō''): ; retrieved |
], ].]]No site for Jimmu's ] is clearly identified by tradition or mythology.<ref name="kunaicho">] (''Kunaichō''): ; retrieved August 22, 2013.</ref> | ||
| ==Commemorating Jimmu's reign== | ==Commemorating Jimmu's reign== | ||
| Line 69: | Line 69: | ||
| * ] and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Berkeley: University of California Press. 10-ISBN 0-520-03460-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; | * ] and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Berkeley: University of California Press. 10-ISBN 0-520-03460-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; | ||
| * Brownlee, John S. (1997). '''' Vancouver: ]. ISBN 0-7748-0645-1 | * Brownlee, John S. (1997). '''' Vancouver: ]. ISBN 0-7748-0645-1 | ||
| * ] (1920). Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on |
* ] (1920). Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on April 12 10 May, and June 21, 1882; reprinted, May 1919. | ||
| * Earhart, David C. (2007). Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. 10-ISBN 0-7656-1776-5; 13-ISBN 978-0-7656-1776-7 | * Earhart, David C. (2007). Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. 10-ISBN 0-7656-1776-5; 13-ISBN 978-0-7656-1776-7 | ||
| * Kitagawa, Joseph Mitsuo. (1987). ''On Understanding Japanese Religion.'' Princeton: Princeton University Press. 10-ISBN 0691073139/13-ISBN 9780691073132; 10-ISBN 0691102295/13-ISBN 9780691102290; | * Kitagawa, Joseph Mitsuo. (1987). ''On Understanding Japanese Religion.'' Princeton: Princeton University Press. 10-ISBN 0691073139/13-ISBN 9780691073132; 10-ISBN 0691102295/13-ISBN 9780691102290; | ||
Revision as of 14:53, 2 June 2014
Emperor of Japan
| Jimmu | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Emperor of Japan | |
| Reign | February 18, 660 BC – 9 April 585 BC (traditional) |
| Successor | Suizei |
| Born | February 13, 711 BC (traditional) unknown |
| Died | April 9, 585 BC (aged 126) Japan |
| Burial | Unebi-yama no ushitora no sumi no misasagi (畝傍山東北陵) (Kashihara, Nara) |
| Spouse | Ahiratsu-hime Himetataraisuzu-hime |
| Issue | Tagishimimi-no-mikoto Hikoyai-no-mikoto Kamuyaimimi-no-mikoto Emperor Suizei |
| Father | Ugayafukiaezu |
| Mother | Tamayori-bime |
Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇, Jinmu-tennō) is the Sino-Japanese name for the legendary first Emperor of Japan in the traditional order of imperial succession. Both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki give his native Japanese name as Kamu-Yamatö-ipare-biko (神倭伊波礼) Ipare (modern Japanese iware) indicates a toponym whose precise purport is unclear. The Imperial house of Japan traditionally based its claim to the throne on its putative descent from the sun-goddess Ama-terasu-opo-mi-kamï via Jimmu's great grandfather Ninigi. While his accession is traditionally dated to February 11, 660 BC, modern historians regard the entire chronicles regarding the earliest Emperors as fabrications based on legend and myth.
Mythical character
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 Yamato dynasty. The name Jimmu-tennō was posthumously assigned by later generations.
According to the legendary account in the Kojiki, Emperor Jimmu would have been born on February 13, 711 BC (the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar), and died, again according to legend, on March 11, 585 BC (both dates according to the lunisolar traditional Japanese calendar).
Legendary narrative
In Japanese mythology, the Age of the Gods is the period before Jimmu's accession.
According to Shinto belief, Jimmu is regarded as a direct descendant of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. Amaterasu had a son called Ame no Oshihomimi no Mikoto and through him a grandson named Ninigi-no-Mikoto. She sent her grandson to the Japanese islands where he eventually married Konohana-Sakuya-hime. Among their three sons was Hikohohodemi no Mikoto, also called Yamasachi-hiko, who married Toyotama-hime. She was the daughter of Ryūjin, the Japanese sea god. They had a single son called Hikonagisa Takeugaya Fukiaezu no Mikoto. The boy was abandoned by his parents at birth and consequently raised by Tamayori-hime, his mother's younger sister. They eventually married and had a total of four sons. The last of these sons, Kan'yamato Iwarebiko, became Emperor Jimmu.
It is said that, soon after the beginning of Jimmu's reign, a Master of Ceremonies (祭主, saishu) was appointed.
Jimmu's migration
Mythic records in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki describe how Jimmu's brothers were born in Takachiho, the southern part of Kyūshū (in modern day Miyazaki prefecture), and decided to move eastward, as they found the location inappropriate for reigning over the entire country. Jimmu's older brother, Itsuse no Mikoto, originally led the migration, and led the clan eastward through the Seto Inland Sea with the assistance of local chieftain Sao Netsuhiko. As they reached Naniwa (modern day Ōsaka), they encountered another local chieftain, Nagasunehiko (lit. "the long-legged man"), and Itsuse was killed in the ensuing battle. Jimmu realized that they had been defeated because they battled eastward against the sun, so he decided to land on the east side of Kii Peninsula and to battle westward. They reached Kumano, and, with the guidance of a three-legged crow, Yatagarasu (lit. "eight-span crow"), they moved to Yamato. There, they once again battled Nagasunehiko and were victorious.
In Yamato, Nigihayahi no Mikoto, who also claim descent from the Takamagahara gods, was protected by Nagasunehiko. However, when Nigihayahi met Jimmu, he accepted Jimmu's legitimacy. At this point, Jimmu is said to have ascended to the throne of Japan.
According to the Kojiki, Jimmu died when he was 126 years old. This emperor's posthumous name literally means "divine might" or "god-warrior". It is undisputed that this identification is Chinese in form and Buddhist in implication, which suggests that the name must have been regularized centuries after the lifetime ascribed to Jimmu. It is generally thought that Jimmu's name and character evolved into their present shape just before the time in which legends about the origins of the Yamato dynasty were chronicled in the Kojiki.
The fluidity of Jimmu before the compilation of the Kojiki and of the Nihon Shoki is demonstrated by somewhat earlier texts that place three dynasties as successors to the mythological Yamato state. According to these texts, Jimmu's dynasty was supplanted by that of Emperor Ōjin, whose dynasty was supplanted by that of Emperor Keitai. The Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki then combined these three mythical dynasties into one long and continuous genealogy.
No site for Jimmu's grave is clearly identified by tradition or mythology.
Commemorating Jimmu's reign
Veneration of Emperor Jimmu, who was said to be the divine founder of Japan's unbroken imperial line, was a central component of the imperial cult that formed following the Meiji restoration. In 1872 the Meiji government announced a new holiday called Kigensetsu ("Era Day") commemorating the anniversary of Jimmu's alleged ascension to the throne 2,532 years earlier. Between 1873 and 1945 an imperial envoy sent offerings every year to Mount Unebi, which was claimed to be Jimmu's tomb, and in 1890 Kashihara Shrine was established nearby on the spot where Jimmu was said to have become Japan's first emperor.
A grandiose Kigensetsu celebration was put on in the year 1940, reputed to be the 2,600th anniversary of Emperor Jimmu's enthronement, during which the government constructed the Hakkō Tower on the legendary site of Emperor Jimmu's palace near Miyazaki. The tower was named after the ancient phrase of Hakkō ichiu (literally "eight cords, one roof"), which had been attributed to Emperor Jimmu and, since 1928, had been espoused by the Imperial government as an expression of Japanese expansionism. Hakkō ichiu envisioned the unification of the world (the "eight corners of the world") under the Emperor's "sacred rule", just as Emperor Jimmu, finding five races in Japan, had made them all as "brothers of one family." The same year the Japanese government erected numerous stone monuments relating to key events in Jimmu's life which were called "Emperor Jimmu Sacred Historical Sites" and which still exist today.
Kigensetsu was suspended in 1948 during the occupation of Japan, but was reinstated in 1966 as Kenkoku Kinen no hi ("National Foundation Day"), a patriotic holiday still celebrated in Japan today. Although the propaganda narrative surrounding Jimmu's life was officially abandoned at the end of World War II, many Japanese history textbooks continued well into the 1970s to promote the story of Japan's divine origins and Jimmu's founding of an unbroken imperial line.
See also
- Imperial cult
- Xu Fu
- Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines
- The Age of the Gods
- Emishi people
- Jomon period
Notes
- 神倭伊波礼琵古命:Kamu-Yamatö-ipare-biko (nö-mikötö) Donald Philippi, tr.Kojiki, University of Tokyo Press, 1969 p.488
- Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, University of Hawai'i Press, 1995 pp.106-7.
- Kelly, Charles F. "Kofun Culture," Japanese Archaeology. April 27, 2009.
- Kitagawa, Joseph. (1987). On Understanding Japanese Religion, p. 145, p. 145, at Google Books; excerpt, "... emphasis on the undisrupted chronological continuity from myths to legends and from legends to history, it is difficult to determine where one ends and the next begins. At any rate, the first ten legendary emperors are clearly not reliable historical records."
- ^ Aston, William. (1896). Nihongi, pp. 109–137.
- Brinkley, Frank. (1915). A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the end of the Meiji Era, p. 21, p. 21, at Google Books; excerpt, "Posthumous names for the earthly Mikados were invented in the reign of Emperor Kammu (782–805), i.e., after the date of the compilation of the Records and the Chronicles.
- Nussbaum, "Jindai" at p. 421, p. 421, at Google Books.
- Nussbaum, "Chijin-godai" at p. 111, p. 111, at Google Books.
- Kennedy, Malcolm D. A History of Japan. London. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1963.
- Ooms, Herman. Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: the Tenmu Dynasty, 650–800. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009
- Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō): 神武天皇 (1); retrieved August 22, 2013.
- ^ Martin, Peter. (1997). The Chrysanthemum Throne: A History of the Emperors of Japan, p. 18-20.
- ^ Ruoff, Kenneth. (2001). The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, p. 21-23.
- Ponsonby-Fane, p. 419.
- Bix, Herbert. (2001). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, p. 201.
- Earhart, David C. (2007). Certain Victory, p. 63.
- Dower, John W. (1993). War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War, p. 223.
- Ruoff, Kenneth. (2010). Imperial Japan at its Zenith: The Wartime Celebration of the Empire's 2,600th Anniversary, p. 186.
- Brownlee, John S. Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods, p. 136, 180–185.
- "Founding Day rekindles annual debate". The Japan Times. February 11, 1998. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Tokutake, Toshio. (1995). 教科書の戦後史, p. 172-178.
References
- Aston, William George. (1896). Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, Volume 1. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. OCLC 448337491
- Bix, Herbert P. (2001). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York: HarperCollins. 10-ISBN 0-06-093130-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-06-093130-8
- Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. 10-ISBN 0-520-03460-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; OCLC 251325323
- Brownlee, John S. (1997). Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-0645-1
- Chamberlain, Basil Hall. (1920). The Kojiki. Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on April 12 10 May, and June 21, 1882; reprinted, May 1919. OCLC 1882339
- Earhart, David C. (2007). Certain Victory: Images of World War II in the Japanese Media. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. 10-ISBN 0-7656-1776-5; 13-ISBN 978-0-7656-1776-7
- Kitagawa, Joseph Mitsuo. (1987). On Understanding Japanese Religion. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 10-ISBN 0691073139/13-ISBN 9780691073132; 10-ISBN 0691102295/13-ISBN 9780691102290; OCLC 15630317
- Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01753-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
- Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887
- Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Odai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691
- Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki: A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns. New York: Columbia University Press. 10-ISBN 0-231-04940-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-231-04940-5; OCLC 59145842
External links
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| New creation | Emperor of Japan 660–585 BC (Traditional dates) |
Succeeded byEmperor Suizei |
 Emperors of Japan (list) | |||||||||
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 Unless otherwise noted (as BC), years are in CE / AD Imperial Consort and Regent Empress Jingū is not traditionally listed. | |||||||||
| Japanese mythology | ||
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| Mythic texts |   | |
| Japanese creation myth | ||
| Takamagahara mythology | ||
| Izumo mythology | ||
| Hyūga mythology | ||
| Human age | ||
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| Mythological weapons | ||
| Major Buddhist figures | ||
| Seven Lucky Gods | ||
| Legendary creatures | ||
| Other | ||