Emperor Kōnin

was the 49th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōnin's reign lasted from 770 to 781; he reigned during the Nara period.

Traditional narrative

The personal name of Emperor Kōnin (imina) was . As a son of Imperial Prince Shiki and a grandson of Emperor Tenji, his formal style was Prince Shirakabe. Initially, he was not in line for succession, as Emperor Tenmu and his branch held the throne.

He married Imperial Princess Inoe, a daughter of Emperor Shōmu, producing a daughter and a son. After his sister-in-law Empress Shōtoku died, he was named her heir. The high courtiers claimed that the empress had left her will in a letter, appointing him as her successor. Prior to this, he had been considered a gentle man without political ambition.

Kōnin had five wives and seven Imperial sons and daughters.

Emperor Kōnin is traditionally venerated at his tomb; the Imperial Household Agency designates , in Nara, Nara, as the location of Kōnin's mausoleum.

August 28, 770 (): Exactly one (Japanese era-based) year later, the succession (senso) was received by Kōnin, who was the 62-year-old grandson of Emperor Tenji.
October 23, 770 (): Emperor Kōnin was said to have acceded to the throne (sokui) in a formal ceremony, following the plans of the nobles and ministers to have him placed on the throne. The era name was also changed on this date, to Hōki.
781 (): The emperor abdicated in favor of his son Yamabe, who became Emperor Kanmu. Emperor Kōnin's reign had lasted for 11 years.

Eras of Kōnin's reign

The years of Kammu's reign are more specifically identified by more than one era name (nengō).

Hōki (770–781)
Ten'ō (781–782)

Legacy

Kōnin attempted to reconstruct the state finance and administrative organizations, which had been corrupted under the reign of Empress Kōken.

Political conflict around his successors

Soon after his enthronement in 770 (Hōki 1), he promoted his wife Imperial Princess Inoe (or Inoue or Ikami, the exact pronunciation of her name is unknown) to the empress and appointed her son Imperial Prince Osabe to the crown prince in the next year. As a grandson of Emperor Shōmu by his mother, Osabe was one of few descendants of Emperor Tenmu, the line of Tenmu however didn't succeed to the throne finally. In 772 Osabe was deprived of his crown prince rank and Imperial Prince Yamabe, an issue by another woman, later Emperor Kanmu was named heir.

According to the , the replacement happened as follows: in the third month of Hōki 3 (772), Inoe was accused of cursing her husband, and Emperor Kōnin stripped her of the rank of Empress. In the fifth month of this year, his son, Osabe, was deprived of his status as crown prince. In Hōki 4 (773), both were alleged to have murdered Imperial Princess Naniwa, a sister of Kōnin, by cursing. This allegation resulted in both being stripped of their royal rank. Those two were together enclosed in a house in Yamato Province and died two years later on the same day, on the 27th day of the fourth month of Hōki 6 (on the Julian Calendar, on May 29, 775).

In 772, soon after Osabe's deprivation of heir right, Prince Yamabe was named heir. His mother Takano no Niigasa, née Yamato no Niigasa, was a descendant of Muryeong, king of Baekje (r. 501-523). Since her clan had then no political power, his appointment had not been likely to happen without the deprivation of Osabe, the noblest male issue of Konin as the son of an Imperial Princess and Empress.

Today, it is pointed out that the accusations against Inoe and Osabe were likely plotted to deprive her son of the throne, and that likely Fujiwara no Momokawa assassinated them.

The late years of Kōnin's reign and the early years of Kanmu's reign were marked by disasters. The people took those disasters as vengeance of noble victims of political conflicts, including late Inoe and Osabe. In 800, during the reign of Kanmu, Princess Inoe, who had died in 775, was restored to the rank of Empress of Kōnin. Several shrines and temples were also founded for redemption, including Kamigoryō Shrine (:ja:上御霊神社). He favored Kim Am, a man from the kingdom of Silla.

Kugyō

is a collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan before the Meiji era.

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 their careers. During Kōnin's reign, this apex of the Daijō-kan included:

Minister of the Left, (714–771), 766–771.

Notes

References

Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887
Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Ōdai 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. ; OCLC 59145842