Emperor of Japan: Encyclopedia II - Emperor of Japan - Naming

Emperor of Japan - Naming

Due to linguistic and cultural differences between Japan and the Western world, naming the emperors of Japan is often troublesome. While scholastic texts in Japan use "{name} tennō" consistently, in texts by English-speaking academics several variants have been used, such as "Emperor {name}", "the {name} Emperor", and "{name} Tenno", although "Emperor {name}" appears to be the most common among these, particularly for emperors prior to Emperor Meiji. What is often not understood, however, is that emperors are posthumously named "{name} tennō", and thus the word "tennō, or "emperor", actually forms a part of their proper name. This is particularly misunderstood with respect to the emperors from Emperor Meiji onward, since the convention now is to posthumously name the emperors the same name as the era over which they preside, whereas previously one emperor's reign might contain a succession of short eras. Terms such as "the Meiji emperor" are thus understood in English as meaning "the emperor of the Meiji period", which is not the understanding in Japanese.

In English, the term mikado (御門 or 帝 or みかど), which literally means "exalted gate", used to be used to refer to the emperor of Japan; this usage is now outdated, as it is in Japanese. In Japanese, the emperors of Japan, but not of other countries, are known as tennō (天皇). Literally, the word tennō combines the characters for "ruler" and "heaven", but this is not a mark of divinity; the use of ten (天, "heaven") in the Japanese word was an adoption of the established Chinese concept of the Mandate of Heaven, which meant that an emperor was appointed in the heavens to balance the political and religious affairs of his domain.

There are three Japanese words equivalent to the English word "emperor": tennō (天皇) is used specifically to describe the emperor of Japan, kōtei (皇帝, lit. "emperor of emperors") is used primarily to describe a Chinese emperor or a foreign emperor, and teiō (帝王, lit. "emperor of kings") is used to describe foreign emperors as well but never a Chinese emperor. Sumeramikoto (lit. "heavenly ruler above the clouds") was also used in Old Japanese.

Traditionally, East Asians consider it discourteous to call a person of noble rank by their given name. This convention is almost dead, but still observed for the imperial family. In fact, the emperor is never to be referred to by name (imina) unless he is dead. Instead, past emperors are called by posthumous names such as Emperor Jimmu, Emperor Kammu and Meiji. Since the Meiji era, era names are also used as posthumous names. The current emperor on the throne is almost always referred to simply as Tennō Heika (天皇陛下, lit. "His Majesty the Emperor") or solemnly as Kinjō Tennō (今上天皇). On the other hand, in ordinary conversations he is referred to simply as Heika, Okami or To-gin san ('To-gin' is a frank expression of Kinjō). The current emperor is not called by the current era name: the era will become his posthumous name. But today this custom tends to be followed more loosely, as described below. In English, the recent emperors are called by their personal names according to Western convention. As explained above, in Japanese this sounds offensive and, in some senses, blasphemous.

For example, the previous emperor is usually called Hirohito in English, but after his death he was renamed Shōwa Tennō and is now referred to exclusively by this name in Japanese. However, during his reign, he was never referred as Hirohito or Shōwa Tennō in Japanese. Rather, he was simply referred to as Tennō Heika (meaning "His Majesty the Emperor").

See also List of Japanese Emperors.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Naming", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki