Shinto
Shinto or kami-no-michi is the traditional religion of Japan that focuses on ritual practices to be carried out diligently to establish a connection between present-day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written historical records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in the 8th century. Still, these earliest Japanese writings do not refer to a unified religion, but rather to a collection of native beliefs and mythology. Shinto today is the religion of public shrines devoted to the worship of a multitude of "spirits", "essences" or "gods", suited to various purposes such as war memorials and harvest festivals, applies as well to various sectarian organizations. Practitioners express their diverse beliefs through a standard language and practice, adopting a similar style in dress and ritual, dating from around the time of the Nara and Heian periods; the word Shinto was adopted as Jindō or Shindō, from the written Chinese Shendao, combining two kanji: shin, meaning "spirit" or kami.
The oldest recorded usage of the word Shindo is from the second half of the 6th century. Kami is rendered in English as "spirits", "essences", or "gods", refers to the energy generating the phenomena. Since the Japanese language does not distinguish between singular and plural, kami refers to the singular divinity, or sacred essence, that manifests in multiple forms: rocks, rivers, objects and people can be said to possess the nature of kami. Kami and people are not separate; as much as nearly 80% of the population in Japan participates in Shinto practices or rituals, but only a small percentage of these identify themselves as "Shintoists" in surveys. This is. Most of the Japanese attend Shinto shrines and beseech kami without belonging to an institutional Shinto religion. There are no formal rituals to become a practitioner of "folk Shinto". Thus, "Shinto membership" is estimated counting only those who do join organised Shinto sects. Shinto has about 85,000 priests in the country. According to surveys carried out in 2006 and 2008, less than 40% of the population of Japan identifies with an organised religion: around 35% are Buddhists, 3% to 4% are members of Shinto sects and derived religions.
In 2008, 26% of the participants reported visiting Shinto shrines, while only 16.2% expressed belief in the existence of a god or gods in general. According to Inoue: "In modern scholarship, the term is used with reference to kami worship and related theologies and practices. In these contexts,'Shinto' takes on the meaning of'Japan's traditional religion', as opposed to foreign religions such as Christianity, Islam and so forth." Shinto religious expressions have been distinguished by scholars into a series of categories: Shrine Shinto, the main tradition of Shinto, has always been a part of Japan's history. It consists of taking part in worship events at local shrines. Before the Meiji Restoration, shrines were disorganized institutions attached to Buddhist temples; the current successor to the imperial organization system, the Association of Shinto Shrines, oversees about 80,000 shrines nationwide. Imperial Household Shinto are the religious rites performed by the imperial family at the three shrines on the imperial grounds, including the Ancestral Spirits Sanctuary and the Sanctuary of the Kami.
Folk Shinto includes the numerous folk beliefs in spirits. Practices include divination, spirit possession, shamanic healing; some of their practices come from Buddhism, Taoism or Confucianism, but most come from ancient local traditions. Sect Shinto is a legal designation created in the 1890s to separate government-owned shrines from local organised religious communities; these communities originated in the Edo period. The basic difference between Shrine Shinto and Sect Shinto is that sects are a development and grew self-consciously, they can identify a founder, a formal set of teachings and sacred scriptures. Sect Shinto groups are thirteen, classified under five headings: pure Shinto sects, Confucian sects,mountain worship sects, purification sects, faith-healing sects (Kurozumikyo／黒住教, Konkokyo/金光教 and its branching Omotokyo/大本教 and Tenrikyo／天理教. Koshintō, literally'Old Shinto', is a reconstructed "Shinto from before the time of Buddhism", today based on Ainu religion and Ryukyuan practices.
It continues the restoration movement begun by Hirata Atsutane. Many other sects and schools can be distinguished. Faction Shinto is a grouping of Japanese new religions developed since the second half of the 20th century that have departed from traditional Shinto and are not always regarded as part of it. Kami, shin, or, jin is defined in English as "god", "spirit", or "spiritual essence", all these terms meaning "the energy generating a thing". Since the Japanese language does not distinguish between singular and plural, kami refers to the divinity, or sacred essence, that manifests in multiple forms. Rocks, rivers, objects, places
Isaac Titsingh
Isaac Titsingh FRS was a Dutch scholar, merchant-trader and ambassador. During a long career in East Asia, Titsingh was a senior official of the Dutch East India Company, he represented the European trading company in exclusive official contact with Tokugawa Japan, traveling to Edo twice for audiences with the shōgun and other high bakufu officials. He was the Dutch and VOC governor general in Bengal. Titsingh worked with his counterpart, Charles Cornwallis, governor general of the British East India Company. In 1795, Titsingh represented Dutch and VOC interests in China, where his reception at the court of the Qing Qianlong Emperor stood in stark contrast to the rebuff suffered by Britain's ambassador George Macartney in 1793, just prior to celebrations of Qianlong’s sixty-year reign. In China, Titsingh functioned as ambassador for his country at the same time as he represented the Dutch East India Company as a trade representative. Isaac Titsingh was born in Amsterdam, the son of Albertus Titsingh and his second wife, Catharina Bittner.
His baptism took place at the Amstelkerk in Amsterdam on 21 January 1745. His father was a prominent Amsterdam surgeon, he thus possessed the means for Titsingh to be brought up with an ‘enlightened education’ of the 18th century. Titsingh became a member of the Amsterdam Chirurgijngilde and received the degree of a Doctorate of Law from Leiden University in January 1765. In March 1764, Titsingh was appointed as 1766 went within his employment to Batavia. Titsingh was the commercial Opperhoofd or chief factor in Japan between 1779–1780, 1781–1783, in 1784; the singular importance of the head of the VOC in Japan during this period was enhanced by the Japanese policy of sakoku—imposed isolation. Because of religious proselytizing by Europeans during the 16th century, the Tokugawa shogunate introduced a policy in the early 17th century that no European or Japanese could enter or leave the Japanese archipelago on penalty of death; the sole exception to this "closed door" was the VOC "factory" on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay, on the southern Japanese island of Kyūshū.
During this period of seclusion, Titsingh is believed to have been the first Freemason in Japan. In this controlled context, the traders became the sole official conduit for trade and for scientific-cultural exchanges between Europe and Japan; the VOC Opperhoofd was accorded the status of a tributary of the shōgun. Given the scarcity of such opportunities, Titsingh's informal contacts with bakufu officials and Rangaku scholars in Edo may have been as important as his formal audiences with the shōgun, Tokugawa Ieharu. During the 18th century there was an improvement of the social position of the Dutch merchants and the treatment of the Dutch vis-à-vis the Japanese, who showed a higher degree of respect and recognition than in the centuries before; the average Opperhoofd was not interested in the customs or culture of the Japanese. Titsingh showed an incredible interest and distinguished himself as an attentive observer of Japanese civilization for a European of his time when compared to his colleagues in Dejima.
Titsingh arrived in Nagasaki on 15 August 1779, where he took over the factory from Arend Willem Feith. He established amicable relations between the interpreters and Japanese. During his first audience with Ieharu in Edo from 25 March 1780 until 5 April 1780, he met a lot of Japanese nobles with whom he established vivid letter correspondence, he became prominent within the elite society of Edo and became friends with several daimyōs and retired daimyōs of the area. After a short return to Batavia in 1780, Titsingh returned to Nagasaki on 12 August 1781, due to his successes with the Dutch-Japanese trade in Dejima. There were no Dutch shipments from Batavia in 1782 due to the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War and thus the trading post in Dejima was cut off from communication with Java during this year. In this year Titsingh stayed in his position as Opperhoofd and concerned himself with befriending Japanese scholars, deepening relations with Japanese friends and researching on all scopes of Japanese customs and culture.
He achieved, due to the absence of Dutch shipping that year, important trade talks and great concessions with the Japanese on a long-debated increase to copper exports from Japan to the Dutch traders. Titsingh stayed a total of three years and eight months in Japan before leaving Nagasaki at the end of November 1784 to return to Batavia, where he arrived on 3 January 1785. In 1785, Titsingh was appointed director of the trading post at Chinsurah in Bengal. Titsingh was described by William Jones, the philologist and Bengal jurist, as "the Mandarin of Chinsura". Titsingh’s return to Batavia led to new positions as Ontvanger-Generaal and as Commissaris ter Zee. While at Batavia, he met with Lord Macartney, en route to China. Titsingh's comments were important factors in McCartney's decision to abandon a planned expedition to Japan in 1793. Mccartney's report to London explained: "... the expediency of attempting an intercourse with the Japanese subsists in its full force. Tho from the conversations I had at Batavia with a Dutch Gentleman of a liberal disposition, several years resident in Japan, Isaac Titsingh, I collected nothing that could induce m
Emperor Suinin
Emperor Suinin known as Ikumeiribikoisachi no Sumeramikoto was the 11th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. No firm dates can be assigned to this Emperor's life or reign, but he is conventionally considered to have reigned from 29 BC to AD 70. Suinin is regarded by historians as a "legendary Emperor" and there's a paucity of information about him. There is insufficient material available for further study; the reign of Emperor Kinmei, the 29th Emperor, is the first for which contemporary historiography is able to assign verifiable dates. The name Suinin-tennō was assigned to him posthumously by generations. Legend says that about two thousand years ago, Emperor Suinin ordered his daughter, Princess Yamatohime-no-mikoto, to set out and find a suitable permanent location from which to hold ceremonies for Amaterasu-ōmikami, the Sun Goddess. After twenty years of searching, she is said to have settled on the area of Ise, establishing the Ise Shrine. According to Asama Shrine tradition, the earliest veneration of Konohanasakuya-hime at the base of Mount Fuji was in the 8th month of the 3rd year of the reign of Emperor Suinin.
The Nihon Shoki records the wrestling match in which Nomi no Sukune and Taima no Kehaya held during his era, as the origin of Sumai. In the context of events like this, the Japanese have traditionally accepted this sovereign's historical existence; the Kojiki records that Suinin was the third son of Emperor Sujin, that he ruled from the palace of Tamaki-no-miya at Makimuku in what will come to be known as Yamato Province. The Kojiki explains that during the reign of Emperor Suinin, the first High Priestess was appointed for Ise Shrine in what would become known as Ise Province. Suinin is a posthumous name, it is suggested that the name must have been regularized centuries after the lifetime ascribed to Suinin during the time in which legends about the origins of the Yamato dynasty were compiled as the chronicles known today as the Kojiki. The legend of Kaguya-hime seems to found its basis in Suinin's story with Kaguya-him-no-Mikoto, one of his consorts, according to the Kojiki; the actual site of Suinin's grave is not known.
The Emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine at Nara. The Imperial Household Agency designates this location as Suinin's mausoleum, it is formally named Sugawara no Fushimi no higashi no misasagi. Suinin's tomb can be visited in Nishi-machi, Nara City; this kofun-type Imperial tomb is characterized by a keyhole-shaped island located within a wide, water-filled moat. Empress: Saho-hime, Prince Hikoimasu's daughter First Son: Prince Homutsuwake Empress: Hibasu-hime, Prince Tanba-no-Michinoushi's daughter Prince Inishikiirihiko Third Son: Prince Ootarashihikoosirowake Emperor Keikō Princess Oonakatsu-hime Princess Yamato-hime, Saiō Prince Wakakiniirihiko Consort: Nubataniiri-hime, Prince Tanba-no-Michinoushi's daughter Prince Nuteshiwake, ancestor of Wake clan Princess Ikatarashi-hime Consort: Matono-hime, Prince Tanba-no-Michinoushi's daughter Consort: Azaminiiri-hime, Prince Tanba-no-Michinoushi's daughter Prince Ikohayawake Princess Wakaasatsu-hime Consort: Kaguya-hime, Prince Ootsutsukitarine's daughter Prince Onabe Consort: Kanihatatobe, Yamashiro no Ookuni no Fuchi's daughter Tenth Son: Prince Iwatsukuwake, ancestor of Mio clan and maternal ancestor of Emperor Keitai Princess Futajiiri-hime, married to Prince Ōsu, mother of Emperor ChūaiConsort: Karihatatobe, Yamashiro no Ookuni no Fuchi's daughter Prince Oochiwake Prince Ikatarashihiko Prince Itakeruwake Mother unknown Prince Tuburame Emperor of Japan List of Emperors of Japan Imperial cult Aston, William George..
Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A. D. 697. London: Kegan Paul, Trubner. OCLC 448337491 Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds.. Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; the Kojiki. Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on April 12, May 10, June 21, 1882. OCLC 1882339 Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon.. The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887 ____________.. Studies in Shinto and Shrines. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 3994492 Titsingh, Isaac.. Nihon Ōdai Ichiran. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691 Varley, H. Paul.. Jinnō Shōtōki: A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-04940-5.
Nihon Shoki
The Nihon Shoki, sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. The book is called the Nihongi, it is more elaborate and detailed than the Kojiki, the oldest, has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeologists as it includes the most complete extant historical record of ancient Japan. The Nihon Shoki was finished in 720 under the editorial supervision of Prince Toneri and with the assistance of Ō no Yasumaro dedicated to Empress Genshō; the Nihon Shoki begins with the Japanese creation myth, explaining the origin of the world and the first seven generations of divine beings, goes on with a number of myths as does the Kojiki, but continues its account through to events of the 8th century. It is believed to record the latter reigns of Emperor Tenji, Emperor Tenmu and Empress Jitō; the Nihon Shoki focuses on the merits of the virtuous rulers as well as the errors of the bad rulers. It describes diplomatic contacts with other countries.
The Nihon Shoki was written in classical Chinese. The Kojiki, on the other hand, is written in a combination of Chinese and phonetic transcription of Japanese; the Nihon Shoki contains numerous transliteration notes telling the reader how words were pronounced in Japanese. Collectively, the stories in this book and the Kojiki are referred to as the Kiki stories; the tale of Urashima Tarō is developed from the brief mention in Nihon Shoki that a certain child of Urashima visited Horaisan and saw wonders. The tale has plainly incorporated elements from the famous anecdote of "Luck of the Sea and Luck of the Mountains" found in Nihon Shoki; the developed Urashima tale contains the Rip Van Winkle motif, so some may consider it an early example of fictional time travel. Chapter 01: Kami no Yo no Kami no maki. Chapter 02: Kami no Yo no Shimo no maki. Chapter 03: Kan'yamato Iwarebiko no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 04: Kamu Nunakawamimi no Sumeramikoto. Shikitsuhiko Tamatemi no Sumeramikoto. Ōyamato Hikosukitomo no Sumeramikoto.
Mimatsuhiko Sukitomo no Sumeramikoto. Yamato Tarashihiko Kuni Oshihito no Sumeramikoto. Ōyamato Nekohiko Futoni no Sumeramikoto. Ōyamato Nekohiko Kunikuru no Sumeramikoto. Wakayamato Nekohiko Ōbibi no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 05: Mimaki Iribiko Iniye no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 06: Ikume Iribiko Isachi no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 07: Ōtarashihiko Oshirowake no Sumeramikoto. Waka Tarashihiko no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 08: Tarashi Nakatsuhiko no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 09: Okinaga Tarashihime no Mikoto. Chapter 10: Homuda no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 11: Ōsasagi no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 12: Izahowake no Sumeramikoto. Mitsuhawake no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 13: Oasazuma Wakugo no Sukune no Sumeramikoto. Anaho no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 14: Ōhatsuse no Waka Takeru no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 15: Shiraka no Take Hirokuni Oshi Waka Yamato Neko no Sumeramikoto. Woke no Sumeramikoto. Oke no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 16: Ohatsuse no Waka Sasagi no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 17: Ōdo no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 18: Hirokuni Oshi Take Kanahi no Sumeramikoto.
Take Ohirokuni Oshi Tate no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 19: Amekuni Oshiharaki Hironiwa no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 20: Nunakakura no Futo Tamashiki no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 21: Tachibana no Toyohi no Sumeramikoto. Hatsusebe no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 22: Toyomike Kashikiya Hime no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 23: Okinaga Tarashi Hihironuka no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 24: Ame Toyotakara Ikashi Hitarashi no Hime no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 25: Ame Yorozu Toyohi no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 26: Ame Toyotakara Ikashi Hitarashi no Hime no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 27: Ame Mikoto Hirakasuwake no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 28: Ama no Nunakahara Oki no Mahito no Sumeramikoto, Kami no maki. Chapter 29: Ama no Nunakahara Oki no Mahito no Sumeramikoto, Shimo no maki. Chapter 30: Takamanohara Hirono Hime no Sumeramikoto; the background of the compilation of the Nihon Shoki is that Emperor Tenmu ordered 12 people, including Prince Kawashima, to edit the old history of the empire. Shoku Nihongi notes that "先是一品舍人親王奉勅修日本紀。至是功成奏上。紀卅卷系圖一卷" in the part of May, 720.
It means "Up to that time, Prince Toneri had been compiling Nihongi on the orders of the emperor. The process of compilation is studied by stylistic analysis of each chapter. Although written in classical Chinese character, some sections use styles characteristic of Japanese editors; the Nihon Shoki is a synthesis of older documents on the records, continuously kept in the Yamato court since the sixth century. It includes documents and folklore submitted by clans serving the court. Prior to Nihon Shoki, there were Tennōki and Kokki compiled by Prince Shōtoku and Soga no Umako, but as they were stored in Soga's residence, they were burned at the time of the Isshi Incident; the work's contributors refer to various sources
Edo period
The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional daimyō. The period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, a stable population, "no more wars", popular enjoyment of arts and culture; the shogunate was established in Edo on March 24, 1603, by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration on May 1868, after the fall of Edo. A revolution took place from the time of the Kamakura shogunate, which existed with the Tennō's court, to the Tokugawa, when the samurai became the unchallenged rulers in what historian Edwin O. Reischauer called a "centralized feudal" form of shogunate. Instrumental in the rise of the new-existing bakufu was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the main beneficiary of the achievements of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Powerful, Ieyasu profited by his transfer to the rich Kantō area.
He maintained two million koku of land, a new headquarters at Edo, a strategically situated castle town, had an additional two million koku of land and thirty-eight vassals under his control. After Hideyoshi's death, Ieyasu moved to seize control from the Toyotomi clan. Ieyasu's victory over the western daimyō at the Battle of Sekigahara gave him control of all Japan, he abolished numerous enemy daimyō houses, reduced others, such as that of the Toyotomi, redistributed the spoils of war to his family and allies. Ieyasu still failed to achieve complete control of the western daimyō, but his assumption of the title of shōgun helped consolidate the alliance system. After further strengthening his power base, Ieyasu installed his son Hidetada as shōgun and himself as retired shōgun in 1605; the Toyotomi were still a significant threat, Ieyasu devoted the next decade to their eradication. In 1615, the Tokugawa army destroyed the Toyotomi stronghold at Osaka; the Tokugawa period brought 250 years of stability to Japan.
The political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han to describe the government and society of the period. In the bakuhan, the shōgun had national authority and the daimyō had regional authority; this represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. The Tokugawa became more powerful during their first century of rule: land redistribution gave them nearly seven million koku, control of the most important cities, a land assessment system reaping great revenues; the feudal hierarchy was completed by the various classes of daimyō. Closest to the Tokugawa house were the shinpan, or "related houses", they were twenty-three daimyō on the borders of Tokugawa lands. The shinpan held honorary titles and advisory posts in the bakufu; the second class of the hierarchy were the fudai, or "house daimyō", rewarded with lands close to the Tokugawa holdings for their faithful service.
By the 18th century, 145 fudai controlled the greatest assessed at 250,000 koku. Members of the fudai class staffed most of the major bakufu offices. Ninety-seven han formed the tozama, former opponents or new allies; the tozama were located on the peripheries of the archipelago and collectively controlled nearly ten million koku of productive land. Because the tozama were least trusted of the daimyō, they were the most cautiously managed and generously treated, although they were excluded from central government positions; the Tokugawa shogunate not only consolidated their control over a reunified Japan, they had unprecedented power over the emperor, the court, all daimyō and the religious orders. The emperor was held up as the ultimate source of political sanction for the shōgun, who ostensibly was the vassal of the imperial family; the Tokugawa helped the imperial family recapture its old glory by rebuilding its palaces and granting it new lands. To ensure a close tie between the imperial clan and the Tokugawa family, Ieyasu's granddaughter was made an imperial consort in 1619.
A code of laws was established to regulate the daimyō houses. The code encompassed private conduct, dress, types of weapons and numbers of troops allowed. Although the daimyō were not taxed per se, they were levied for contributions for military and logistical support and for such public works projects as castles, roads and palaces; the various regulations and levies not only strengthened the Tokugawa but depleted the wealth of the daimyō, thus weakening their threat to the central administration. The han, once military-centered domains, became mere local administrative units; the daimyō did have full administrative control over their territory and their complex systems of retainers and commoners. Loyalty was exacted from religious foundations greatly weakened by Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, through a variety of control mechanisms. Like Hideyoshi, Ieyasu encouraged foreign trade but was suspicious of outsiders, he wanted to make Edo a major port, but once he learned that the Europeans favored ports in Kyūshū and that China had rejected his plans for official trade, he moved to control existing trade
Emperor Keikō
Emperor Keikō known as Ootarashihikooshirowake no Sumeramikoto was the 12th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign is conventionally dated as 71–130 AD. Keikō is regarded by historians as a legendary Emperor with little information about him. There is insufficient material available for further study; the reign of Emperor Kinmei, the 29th Emperor, is the first for which contemporary historiography is able to assign verifiable dates. The name Keikō-tennō was assigned to him posthumously by generations, his legend was recorded in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, but the accounts of him are different in these two sources. In the Kojiki, he sent his son Prince Ōsu to Kyūshū to conquer local tribes. In the Nihon Shoki, Keikō himself won battles against local tribes. According to both sources, he sent Yamato Takeru to Izumo Province and eastern provinces to conquer the area and spread his territory. According to traditional sources, Yamato Takeru died in the 43rd year of Emperor Keiko's reign.
The possessions of the dead prince were gathered together along with the sword Kusanagi. Sometime these relics and the sacred sword were moved to the current location of the Atsuta Shrine; the Nihon Shoki explains that this move occurred in the 51st year of Keiko's reign, but the shrine tradition dates this event in the 1st year of Emperor Chūai's reign. The actual site of Keikō's grave is not known; the Emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine at Nara. The Imperial Household Agency designates this location as Keikō's mausoleum, it is formally named Yamanobe no michi no e no misasagi. Empress: Princess Harima no Inabi no Ōiratsume, Prince Wakatakehiko's daughter Prince Kushitsunowake Prince Ōsu, ancestor of Mugetsu no kimi Prince Ōsu, father of Emperor ChūaiEmpress: Yasakairi-hime, Prince Yasakairihiko's daughter Fourth Son: Prince Wakatarashihiko Emperor Seimu Prince Iokiirihiko Prince Oshinowake Prince Wakayamatoneko Prince Ōsuwake Princess Nunoshino-hime-miko Princess Iokiirihime-miko Princess Kagoyori-hime-miko Prince Isakiirihiko, ancestor of Mitsukai no Muraji Prince Kibinoehiko Princess Takagiiri-hime-miko Princess Oto-hime-miko Consort: Mizuhanoiratsume, Prince Iwatsukuwake's daughter Princess Ionono-hime-miko, SaiōConsort: Ikawa-hime Prince Kamukushi, ancestor of Sanuki no Kimi, Sakabe no Kimi Prince Inaseirihiko, ancestor of Saeki no Atai, Harima no Atai Consort: Abenotakada-hime, Abe no Kogoto's daughter Prince Takekunikoriwake Consort: Himuka no Kaminagaootane Prince Himuka no Sotsuhiko Consort: Sonotake-hime Prince Kunichiwake Prince Kunisewake Prince Toyotowake Consort: Himukanomihakashi-hime Prince Toyokuniwake, ancestor of Himuka no Kuni no miyatsuko Consort: Inabinowakairatsume, Prince Wakatakehiko's daughter Prince Mawaka Prince Hikohitoōe Consort: Igoto-hime, Mononobe no Igui's daughter Prince Igotohiko Mother unknown: Prince Wakaki-no-Irihiko, speculated as the same person with Prince Iokiirihiko Princess Shirogane, married Prince Hikohitoōe Prince Wakayahiko (稚屋彦命 Prince Amatarashine Prince Takekunikowake, speculated as the same person with Prince Takekunikoriwake Prince Ososhikowake Prince Iwakosowake Prince Takeoshiwake, speculated as the same person with Prince Oshinowake Prince Sonomewake Prince Tochiribiko Prince Sonowashiwake Prince Shirokoriwake Prince Okinaga-no-hikohitoōe-Mizuki, speculated as the same person with Prince Hikohitoōe Prince Kuma-no-Oshitsuhiko Prince Takeotowake Prince Kusaki Prince Tagotowake Prince Oaretowake Prince Toyohiwake Prince Mikawa-no-Sukune Prince Toyotewaka Prince Yamato-no-Sukune Prince Toyotsuhiko Prince Okoriwake List of Emperors of Japan Imperial cult Takahashi Ujibumi Aston, William George..
Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A. D. 697. London: Kegan Paul, Trubner. OCLC 448337491 Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds.. Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; the Kojiki. Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on April 12, May 10, June 21, 1882. OCLC 1882339 Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon.. The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887 __________.. Studies in Shinto and Shrines. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 470294859 Titsingh, Isaac.. Nihon Ōdai Ichiran. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691 Varley, H. Paul.. Jinnō Shōtōki: A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-04940-5.
Kusanagi
Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is a legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, but its name was changed to the more popular Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. In folklore, the sword represents the virtue of valor; the history of the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi extends into legend. According to Kojiki, the god Susanoo encountered a grieving family of kunitsukami headed by Ashinazuchi in Izumo Province; when Susanoo inquired of Ashinazuchi, he told him that his family was being ravaged by the fearsome Yamata-no-Orochi, an eight-headed serpent of Koshi, who had consumed seven of the family's eight daughters and that the creature was coming for his final daughter, Kushinada-hime. Susanoo investigated the creature, after an abortive encounter he returned with a plan to defeat it. In return, he asked for Kushinada-hime's hand in marriage, agreed. Transforming her temporarily into a comb to have her company during battle, he detailed his plan into steps, he instructed that eight vats of sake be prepared and put on individual platforms positioned behind a fence with eight gates.
The monster put one of its heads through each gate. With this distraction, Susanoo slew the beast, he chopped off each head and proceeded to the tails. In the fourth tail, he discovered a great sword inside the body of the serpent which he called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, he presented the sword to the goddess Amaterasu to settle an old grievance. Generations during the reign of the twelfth Emperor, Keikō, Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi was given to the great warrior, Yamato Takeru as part of a pair of gifts given by his aunt, Yamatohime-no-mikoto, the Shrine Maiden of Ise Shrine, to protect her nephew in times of peril; these gifts came in handy when Yamato Takeru was lured onto an open grassland during a hunting expedition by a treacherous warlord. The lord had fiery arrows loosed to ignite the grass and trap Yamato Takeru in the field so that he would burn to death, he killed the warrior's horse to prevent his escape. Yamato Takeru used the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi to cut back the grass and remove fuel from the fire, but in doing so, he discovered that the sword enabled him to control the wind and cause it to move in the direction of his swing.
Taking advantage of this magic, Yamato Takeru used his other gift, fire strikers, to enlarge the fire in the direction of the lord and his men, he used the winds controlled by the sword to sweep the blaze toward them. In triumph, Yamato Takeru renamed the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi to commemorate his narrow escape and victory. Yamato Takeru married and fell in battle against a monster, after ignoring his wife's advice to take the sword with him. Although the sword is mentioned in the Kojiki, this book is a collection of Japanese myths and is not considered a historical document; the first reliable historical mention of the sword is in the Nihonshoki. Although the Nihonshoki contains mythological stories that are not considered reliable history, it records some events that were contemporary or nearly contemporary to its writing, these sections of the book are considered historical. In the Nihonshoki, the Kusanagi was removed from the Imperial palace in 688, moved to Atsuta Shrine after the sword was blamed for causing Emperor Tenmu to fall ill.
Along with the jewel and the mirror, it is one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan, the sword representing the virtue of valor. Kusanagi is kept at Atsuta Shrine but is not available for public display. During the Edo period, while performing various repairs and upkeep at Atsuta Shrine, including replacement of the outer wooden box housing the sword, the Shinto priest Matsuoka Masanao claimed to have been one of several priests to have seen the sword. Per his account, "a stone box was inside a wooden box of length 150 cm, with red clay stuffed into the gap between them. Inside the stone box was a hollowed log of a camphor tree, acting as another box, with an interior lined with gold. Above, placed a sword. Red clay was stuffed between the stone box and the camphor tree box; the sword was about 82 cm long. Its blade resembled a calamus leaf; the middle of the sword had a thickness from the grip about 18cm with an appearance like a fish spine. The sword was fashioned in a white metallic color, well maintained."
After witnessing the sword, the grand priest was banished and the other priests, except for Matsuoka, died from strange diseases. The above account therefore comes from Matsuoka. In The Tale of the Heike, a collection of oral stories transcribed in 1371, the sword is lost at sea after the defeat of the Heike in the Battle of Dan-no-ura, a naval battle that ended in the defeat of the Heike clan forces and the child Emperor Antoku at the hands of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. In the tale, upon hearing of the Navy's defeat, the Emperor's grandmother led the Emperor and his entourage to commit suicide by drowning in the waters of the strait, taking with her two of the three Imperial Regalia: the sacred jewel and the sword Kusanagi; the sacred mirror was recovered in extremis when one of the ladies-in-waiting was about to jump with it into the sea. Although the sacred jewel is said to have been found in its casket floating on the waves, Kusanagi was lost forever. Although written about historical events, The Tale of the Heike is a collection of epic poetry passed down orally and written down nearly 200 years after the actual
