was the 29th

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the ...

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial Family, and also the keeping of the Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century AD, up until the Second World War, it ...

(''Kunaichō'')
欽明天皇 (29)
retrieved 2013-8-22. according to the traditional order of succession. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834)
pp. 34–36
Brown, Delmer. (1979)
Varley, H. Paul"> ''Gukanshō,'' pp. 261–262; Varley, H. Paul
. (1980). pp. 123–124 Richard Ponsonby-Fane, Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan,'' p. 45. His reign is said to have spanned the years from 539 to 571. Kinmei is the first historical Japanese Emperor based on historical evidence.

Traditional narrative

Kinmei'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 , meaning "the great king who rules all under heaven". Alternatively, Kinmei might have been referred to as or the "Great King of Yamato".

Events of Kinmei's life

Because of several chronological discrepancies in the account of Emperor Kinmei in the '' Nihon Shoki'', some believe that he was actually ruling a rival court to that of Emperors Ankan and

Senka (467 — 15 March 539) was the 28th legendary Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 宣化天皇 (28)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. No firm dates can be assigned to this Emperor's life or reign, bu ...

. Nevertheless, according to the traditional account, it was not until the death of Emperor Kinmei's older brother Emperor Senka that he gained the throne. According to this account, Emperor Senka died in 539 at the age of 73; and succession passed to the third son of Emperor Keitai. This Imperial Prince was the next youngest brother of Emperor Senka. He would come to be known as Emperor Kinmei. He established his court at in Yamato.Brown
p. 262
The Emperor's chief counselors were: * '' Ōomi'' (Great Imperial chieftain): Soga no Iname no Sukune, also known as

Soga no Iname was a leader of the Soga clan and a statesman during the reign of Emperor Kinmei in the Asuka period. He was the first person to hold the position of ''Ōomi'' that can be verified with reasonable accuracy, in 536 A.D. Essentially what this m ...

. * '' Ōmuraji'' (Great Deity chieftain): Monotobe Okoshi no Muraji, also known as Mononobe no Okoshi. * '' Ōmuraji'' (Great Deity chieftain): Ōtomo Kanamura Maro, also known as Otomo no Kanamura. Although the imperial court was not moved to the Asuka region of Japan until 592, Emperor Kinmei's rule is considered by some to be the beginning of the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592 to 645), although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after ...

of Yamato Japan, particularly by those who associate the Asuka period primarily with the introduction of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

to Japan from

Baekje Baekje or Paekche (, ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BC to 660 AD. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. Baekje was founded by Onjo, the third son of Goguryeo's founder J ...

. According to the ''Nihon Shoki'', Emperor Kinmei received a bronze statue of

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

as a gift from the king of

King Song Myong (聖明王, ''Seimei Ō'') along with a significant envoy of artisans, monks, and other artifacts in 552. (However, according to the Jōgū Shōtoku Hōō Teisetsu, Buddhism was introduced in 538.) This episode is widely regarded as the official introduction of Buddhism to the country. With the introduction of a new religion to the court, a deep rift developed between the Mononobe clan, whose members supported the worship of Japan's traditional deities, and the Soga clan, whose members supported the adoption of Buddhism. According to the ''Nihon Shoki'', Emperor Kinmei ruled until his death in 571 and was buried in the . An alternate stronger theory holds that he was actually buried in the , located in . The Emperor is traditionally venerated at a

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shint ...

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they ...

(''misasagi'') at Nara. The

designates the Nara location as Kinmei's

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be cons ...

. It is formally named ''Hinokuma no saki Ai no misasagi''.Ponsonby-Fane, p. 419. However, the actual sites of the graves of the early Emperors are unclear, according to some historians and archaeologists.

Genealogy

Emperor Kinmei's father was Emperor Keitai and his mother was Emperor Ninken's daughter, . In his lifetime, he was known by the name . Kinmei had six Empresses and 25 Imperial children (16 sons and 9 daughters). According to Nihongi, he had six wives, but the ''Kojiki'' gives only five wives; identifying the third consort to be the same as the sixth one. The first three were his nieces, daughters of his half-brother Emperor Senka; two others were sisters, daughters of the Omi Soga no Iname. *Empress: , Emperor Senka's daughter **First son: **Second son: , later Emperor Bidatsu ** *Consort: , Emperor Senka's daughter ** *Consort: , Emperor Senka's daughter **, in the ''Kojiki'' as *Consort: ,

's daughter **Fourth Son: , later

Prince Shōtoken A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

, adoptive father of Prince Shōtoku **,

Saiō A , was an unmarried female member of the Japanese Imperial Family, sent to Ise to serve at Ise Grand Shrine from the late 7th century until the 14th century. The Saiō's residence, , was about 10 km north-west of the shrine. The remains of ...

; had to resign her charge after being convicted of intrigue with her half-brother Imperial Prince Mubaragi **, also **, later

Empress Dowager Kitano-Hime An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

, married to Emperor Bidatsu **, also ** ** **, also **, married to her nephew, Prince Oshisako no Hikohito no Oe, Emperor Bidatsu's son **Sixth Son: , also **, also ** **, also , married to her nephew, Prince Maroko, Emperor Yōmei's son ** Emperor Yōmei (用明天皇) *Consort: ,

's daughter **, also ** **Third daughter: , married to her half brother, Emperor Yōmei, later married to her nephew and stepson, Prince Tame ( Emperor Yōmei's son) ** **, later Kimiyori no Kimitsuhi **, speculated as Emperor Senka's son *Consort: , Kasuga no Hifuri no Omi's daughter ** **, also

Ancestry

Notes

References

* Aston, William George. (1896)
''Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697.''
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. * Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979)
''Gukanshō: The Future and the Past.''
Berkeley: University of California Press. ; * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959)
''The Imperial House of Japan.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. * Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''

Nihon Ōdai Ichiran , ', is a 17th-century chronicle of the serial reigns of Japanese emperors with brief notes about some of the noteworthy events or other happenings. According to the 1871 edition of the '' American Cyclopaedia'', the 1834 French translation of ...