Emperor of Japan: Encyclopedia II - Emperor of Japan - History

Emperor of Japan - History

Although the emperor has been a symbol of continuity with the past, the degree of power exercised by the emperor of Japan has varied considerably throughout Japanese history. The earliest emperors recorded in Kojiki and Nihonshoki, such as Emperor Jimmu, are considered today to have no historical credibility. Historians think the first emperor who existed historically was Emperor Ōjin, but the time of his reign is uncertain. These two books state that the imperial house maintained a continuous lineage, though today some historians believe that many ancient emperors who were claimed to be descendants of Emperor Ōjin had no actual genealogical tie to their predecessor. From the 1100s to 1868, the real power was in the hands of the shoguns, who were in theory always given their authority through the emperor. When Spanish and Portuguese explorers first contacted Japan (see Nanban period), they likened the relationship between emperor and shogun to that of the Catholic Pope (godly, but with little political power) and king (earthly, but with a relatively large amount of political power).

The title "Emperor of Japan" is in some sense an expedient Western construct of a hereditary officer who has historically had a deeply ingrained position in Japanese society, without any necessary role in government. Japanese administrations have usually had to accept the emperor as a necessary inconvenience - as the Italian government had to live with the pope residing within the borders of Italy. The Japanese people conventionally regard such a figurehead as a monarch, in the same sense that the caliph, the pope and the stadtholder of the Dutch Republic were once regarded as monarchs. In most (if not all) periods, that monarch has had at least some official role in the government of Japan - or perhaps we should say that governments have utilized the influence of the emperor to their own advantage.

Up to recent centuries, Japan's territory did not include several remoter regions of its modern-day territory. The name Nippon came into use only many many centuries after the start of the current imperial line. Centralized government really only began to appear shortly before and during the time of Prince Shotoku. The emperor was more like a revered embodiment of divinity rather than the head of an actual governing administration. In Japan it has always been easy for ambitious lords to hold actual power, as such positions have not been inherently contradictory to the emperor's position. Parliamentary government today continues a similar coexistence with the emperor as have various shoguns, regents, warlords, guardians, etc. It is perhaps technically a distortion to use the English word "emperor" to translate the word "tennō". In Europe, people holding similar offices have retained the titles used in their own native language, which is perhaps more accurate than trying to translate such a unique office into a preexisting English term.

Historically the titles of tennō in Japanese have never included territorial designations as is the case with many European monarchs. The position of emperor is a territory-independent phenomenon - the emperor is the emperor, even if he has followers only in one province (as was the case sometimes with the southern and northern courts).

By the constitution of 1889, the emperor of Japan transferred a large part of his former powers as absolute monarch to the representatives of the people, but remained head of the empire. Though inspired by the constitutions of Europe, the new Meiji Constitution was not as democratic as some had initially hoped. The emperor was given broad and vague "reserve powers" which in turn were exploited by the prime minister and various cliques around the emperor. By the 1930s the Japanese cabinet was largely composed of pseudo-fascist military leaders who used the emperor and his supposed divinity as an ultra-nationalistic rallying point for expansion of the empire. When World War II erupted, the emperor was the symbol soldiers were indoctrinated to fight and die for. The emperor himself was hidden from sight, however, and his actual role during this period is disputed. It is commonly believed he was largely sidelined by the military. Controversy still remains as to the role Hirohito played in commanding Japanese forces during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War.

Emperor of Japan - Post World War II

After Japan's surrender to allied forces ending WWII, 'emperor' became a ceremonial title only, with real power residing in a legislative body; in essence, its de jure status is similar to the de facto status of the British monarchy. US General Douglas MacArthur insisted that Hirohito remain emperor to keep him as a symbol of continuity and cohesion within Japanese society. Despite Truman's desire to have Hirohito tried for war crimes, Truman consented to MacArthur's views, and Hirohito kept his status, though he was forced to disavow previous claims of being an arahitogami or living god. Only Hirohito personally renounced his divine status; other members of the imperial family did not.

Since the war, the emperor has become a strictly ceremonial figure within Japanese society. Though he presides over certain government events, he is now simply a figurehead who is explicitly banned from participating in politics in any way.

Succession is now regulated by laws passed by the Japanese Diet. The current law excludes females from the succession despite the historical existence of female occupants of the throne. A change to this law is being considered, since, as of 2005, the only child of The Imperial Highness the Crown Prince Naruhito is female. (In the list of emperors of Japan, the empresses regnant are those with an asterisk after their reigning periods.) This creates a logistical challenge as well as political: any change in the law would most likely mean a revision to allow the succession of the first born rather than the first born son; however, the current emperor is not the first born, he has elder sisters.

Emperor of Japan - Marriage traditions

Japanese monarchs have been, as much as others elsewhere, dependent on making alliances with powerful chiefs and other monarchs. Many such alliances were sealed by marriages. The specific feature in Japan has been the fact that these marriages have been soon incorporated as elements of tradition which controlled the marriages of later generations, though the original practical alliance had lost its real meaning.

Beginning from the 7th and 8th centuries, emperors primarily took women of the Fujiwara clan as their highest wives - the most probable mothers of future monarchs. This was cloaked as a tradition of marriage between heirs of two kamis, Shinto gods: descendants of Amaterasu with descendants of the family kami of the Fujiwara. (Originally, the Fujiwara were descended from relatively minor nobility, thus their kami is an unremarkable one in the Japanese myth world.) The reality behind such marriages was an alliance between an imperial prince and a Fujiwara lord, his father-in-law or grandfather, the latter with his resources supporting the prince to the throne and most often controlling the government. These arrangements created the tradition of regents (Sessho and Kampaku), with these positions alowed to be held only by a Fujiwara sekke lord.

Earlier, the emperors had married females from families of the government-holding Soga lords, and females of the imperial clan itself, i.e various-degree cousins and often even their own sisters (half-sisters). Several imperials of the 5th and 6th centuries were children of a couple of half-siblings. These marriages often were alliance or succession devices: the Soga lord ensured the domination of a prince, to be put as puppet to the throne; or a prince ensured the combination of two imperial descents, to strengthen his own and his children's claim to the throne. Marriages were also a means to seal a reconciliation between two imperial branches.

After a couple of centuries, emperors could no longer take anyone from outside such families as primary wife, no matter what the expediency of such a marriage and power or wealth brought by such might have been. Only very rarely was a prince without a mother of descent from such families allowed to ascend the throne. The earlier necessity and expediency had mutated into a strict tradition that did not allow for current expediency or necessity, but only dictated that daughters of a restricted circle of families were eligible brides, because they had produced eligible brides for centuries. Tradition had become more forceful than law.

The five Fujiwara families, Ichijo, Kujo, Nijo, Konoe and Takatsukasa, were the primary source of imperial brides from the 8th century to the 19th century, even more often than daughters of the imperial clan itself. Fujiwara daughters were thus the usual empresses and mothers of emperors.

The acceptable source of imperial wives, brides for the emperor and crown prince, were even legislated into the Meiji-era imperial house laws, which stipulated that daughters of Sekke (the five main branches of the higher Fujiwara) and daughters of the imperial clan itself were primarily acceptable brides.

Since that law was repealed in the aftermath of WWII, the present Emperor Akihito became the first crown prince for over a thousand years to have an empress outside the previously eligible circle.

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