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Revert. Curtis, please discuss further changes on the talk page first. Most (all) of the Japanese people around me "celebrate" this holiday by taking the day off work and either resting at home or going to an onsen.
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Veneration of Emperor Jimmu, who was said to be the divine founder of Japan's unbroken imperial line, was a central component of the [[imperial cult]] that formed following the [[Meiji restoration]].<ref name="martin">Martin, Peter. (1997). ''The Chrysanthemum Throne: A History of the Emperors of Japan'', p. 18-20.</ref><ref name="ruoff">Ruoff, Kenneth. (2001). ''The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy'', p. 21-23.</ref> In 1872 the [[Meiji government]] announced a new holiday called ''Kigensetsu'' ("Era Day") commemorating the anniversary of Jimmu's mythical ascension to the throne 2,532 years earlier.<ref name="martin"/><ref name="ruoff"/> Between 1873 and 1945 an imperial envoy sent offerings every year to Mount Unebi, which was claimed to be Jimmu's tomb,<ref name="martin"/> and in 1890 [[Kashihara Shrine]] was established nearby on the spot where Jimmu was said to have become Japan's first emperor.<ref name="ruoff"/><ref>Ponsonby-Fane, p. 419.</ref>
Veneration of Emperor Jimmu, who was said to be the divine founder of Japan's unbroken imperial line, was a central component of the [[imperial cult]] that formed following the [[Meiji restoration]].<ref name="martin">Martin, Peter. (1997). ''The Chrysanthemum Throne: A History of the Emperors of Japan'', p. 18-20.</ref><ref name="ruoff">Ruoff, Kenneth. (2001). ''The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy'', p. 21-23.</ref> In 1872 the [[Meiji government]] announced a new holiday called ''Kigensetsu'' ("Era Day") commemorating the anniversary of Jimmu's mythical ascension to the throne 2,532 years earlier.<ref name="martin"/><ref name="ruoff"/> Between 1873 and 1945 an imperial envoy sent offerings every year to Mount Unebi, which was claimed to be Jimmu's tomb,<ref name="martin"/> and in 1890 [[Kashihara Shrine]] was established nearby on the spot where Jimmu was said to have become Japan's first emperor.<ref name="ruoff"/><ref>Ponsonby-Fane, p. 419.</ref>


A grandiose ''Kigensetsu'' celebration was put on in the year 1940, reputed to be the 2,600th anniversary of Emperor Jimmu's enthronement, during which the government constructed the Hakkō Tower on the legendary site of Emperor Jimmu's palace near [[Miyazaki, Miyazaki|Miyazaki]].<ref name="Edwards 2003">Walter Edwards, "Forging Tradition for a Holy War: The 'Hakkō Ichiu' Tower in Miyazaki and Japanese Wartime Ideology," ''Journal of Japanese Studies'', Summer 2003, 289-324.</ref> The tower was named after a nationalistic slogan, ''[[Hakko ichiu|Hakkō ichiu]]'' (literally "eight cords, one roof") coined by [[Tanaka Chigaku]] in 1903<ref>Tanaka coined the phrase in a four-hour lecture given in November 1903, ''Kōso no Kenkoku to Honge no Taikyō.''(皇宗の建国と本化の大教) The lecture was published in April 1904 as ''Sekai Tōitsu no Tengyō'' (世界統一の天業). In the '''written version''' (1903) he used 天地一宇. In his 1912-1913 lectures he reverts to 八紘一宇, ‘his succinct version of the ''Nihongi'' wording (whose Chinese text gave him trouble in interpreting). ‘This is '''the origin''', it seems, '''of the slogan''' adopted by the ultra-nationalists of the 1930s and 1940s'. Edwin B. Lee, ‘Nichiren and Nationalism: The Religious Patriotism of Tanaka Chigaku,’. in [[Monumenta Nipponica]] 1975, 30:1 (1975).pp.19-35 pp.28-29.</ref> on the basis of phrasing found in the [[Nihon Shoki]] account of Jimmu's reign.<ref>然後、兼六合以開都、掩'''八紘'''而為'''宇'''、不亦可乎 in Sakamoto Tarō, [[Saburo Ienaga|Ienaga Saburō]], Inoue Mitsusada, [[Susumu Ohno|Ōno Susumu]] (eds.) ''Nihon Shoki'' Iwanami Koten Bungaku Taikei 67, 1967 p.213 </ref> It was subsequently espoused by the Imperial government as an expression of Japanese expansionism from 1928 onwards.<ref>[[Herbert Bix|Bix, Herbert]]. (2001). ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', p. 200-201.</ref> The [[Japan Times]] in 1940 asserted that Emperor Jimmu, finding five races in Japan, had made them all as "brothers of one family."<ref>[[John W. Dower|Dower, John W.]], ''War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War,'' faber and faber, 1993 p.223.</ref> The same year the Japanese government erected numerous stone monuments relating to key events ascribed to Jimmu in his legendary life, at "Emperor Jimmu Sacred Historical Sites", which still exist today.<ref>Ruoff, Kenneth. (2010). ''Imperial Japan at its Zenith: The Wartime Celebration of the Empire's 2,600th Anniversary'', p. 186.</ref>''Kigensetsu'' was suspended in 1948 during the [[occupation of Japan]], but was reinstated in 1966 as ''Kenkoku Kinen no hi'' ("[[National Foundation Day]]"), a patriotic holiday still celebrated in Japan today.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/1998/02/11/national/founding-day-rekindles-annual-debate/#.U4F2VihWrrB|title=Founding Day rekindles annual debate|publisher=''The Japan Times''|date=February 11, 1998|accessdate=May 24, 2014}}</ref>
A grandiose ''Kigensetsu'' celebration was put on in the year 1940, reputed to be the 2,600th anniversary of Emperor Jimmu's enthronement, during which the government constructed the Hakkō Tower on the legendary site of Emperor Jimmu's palace near [[Miyazaki, Miyazaki|Miyazaki]].<ref name="Edwards 2003">Walter Edwards, "Forging Tradition for a Holy War: The 'Hakkō Ichiu' Tower in Miyazaki and Japanese Wartime Ideology," ''Journal of Japanese Studies'', Summer 2003, 289-324.</ref> The tower was named after a nationalistic slogan, ''[[Hakko ichiu|Hakkō ichiu]]'' (literally "eight cords, one roof") coined by [[Tanaka Chigaku]] in 1903<ref>Tanaka coined the phrase in a four-hour lecture given in November 1903, ''Kōso no Kenkoku to Honge no Taikyō.''(皇宗の建国と本化の大教) The lecture was published in April 1904 as ''Sekai Tōitsu no Tengyō'' (世界統一の天業). In the '''written version''' (1903) he used 天地一宇. In his 1912-1913 lectures he reverts to 八紘一宇, ‘his succinct version of the ''Nihongi'' wording (whose Chinese text gave him trouble in interpreting). ‘This is '''the origin''', it seems, '''of the slogan''' adopted by the ultra-nationalists of the 1930s and 1940s'. Edwin B. Lee, ‘Nichiren and Nationalism: The Religious Patriotism of Tanaka Chigaku,’. in [[Monumenta Nipponica]] 1975, 30:1 (1975).pp.19-35 pp.28-29.</ref> on the basis of phrasing found in the [[Nihon Shoki]] account of Jimmu's reign.<ref>然後、兼六合以開都、掩'''八紘'''而為'''宇'''、不亦可乎 in Sakamoto Tarō, [[Saburo Ienaga|Ienaga Saburō]], Inoue Mitsusada, [[Susumu Ohno|Ōno Susumu]] (eds.) ''Nihon Shoki'' Iwanami Koten Bungaku Taikei 67, 1967 p.213 </ref> It was subsequently espoused by the Imperial government as an expression of Japanese expansionism from 1928 onwards.<ref>[[Herbert Bix|Bix, Herbert]]. (2001). ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', p. 200-201.</ref> The [[Japan Times]] in 1940 asserted that Emperor Jimmu, finding five races in Japan, had made them all as "brothers of one family."<ref>[[John W. Dower|Dower, John W.]], ''War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War,'' faber and faber, 1993 p.223.</ref>''Hakkō ichiu'' was thus employed in a way that envisioned the unification of the world (the "eight corners of the world") under the Japanese Emperor's "sacred rule".<ref>Earhart, David C. (2007). ''Certain Victory'', p. 63.</ref> The same year the Japanese government erected numerous stone monuments relating to key events ascribed to Jimmu in his legendary life, at "Emperor Jimmu Sacred Historical Sites", which still exist today.<ref>Ruoff, Kenneth. (2010). ''Imperial Japan at its Zenith: The Wartime Celebration of the Empire's 2,600th Anniversary'', p. 186.</ref><ref>Brownlee, John S. ''Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods'', p. 180–185.</ref>


Although the propaganda narrative surrounding Jimmu's life was officially abandoned at the end of World War II, many Japanese history textbooks continued well into the 1970s to promote the story of Japan's divine origins and Jimmu's founding of an unbroken imperial line.<ref>Tokutake, Toshio. (1995). ''教科書の戦後史'', p. 172-178.</ref>
''Kigensetsu'' was suspended in 1948 during the [[occupation of Japan]], but was reinstated in 1966 as ''Kenkoku Kinen no hi'' ("[[National Foundation Day]]"), a patriotic holiday still celebrated in Japan today.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/1998/02/11/national/founding-day-rekindles-annual-debate/#.U4F2VihWrrB|title=Founding Day rekindles annual debate|publisher=''The Japan Times''|date=February 11, 1998|accessdate=May 24, 2014}}</ref> Although the propaganda narrative surrounding Jimmu's life was officially abandoned at the end of World War II, many Japanese history textbooks continued well into the 1970s to promote the story of Japan's divine origins and Jimmu's founding of an unbroken imperial line.<ref>Tokutake, Toshio. (1995). ''教科書の戦後史'', p. 172-178.</ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 22:33, 6 June 2014

Jimmu
Emperor of Japan
ReignFebruary 18, 660 BC – 9 April 585 BC (mythic)
SuccessorSuizei
BornFebruary 13, 711 BC (mythic)
DiedApril 9, 585 BC (aged 126) (mythic)
Japan
Burial
Unebi-yama no ushitora no sumi no misasagi (畝傍山東北陵) (Kashihara, Nara)(mythic)
SpouseAhiratsu-hime
Himetataraisuzu-hime
IssueTagishimimi-no-mikoto
Hikoyai-no-mikoto
Kamuyaimimi-no-mikoto
Emperor Suizei
FatherUgayafukiaezu
MotherTamayori-bime

Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇, Jinmu-tennō) is the canonical Sino-Japanese name for the legendary first Emperor of Japan in the traditional order of imperial succession. Both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki give his native Japanese name as Kamu-Yamatö-ipare-biko (神倭伊波礼)[1] Ipare (modern Japanese iware) indicates a toponym whose precise purport is unclear. The Imperial house of Japan traditionally based its claim to the throne on its putative descent from the sun-goddess Ama-terasu-opo-mi-kamï via Jimmu's great grandfather Ninigi.[2] While his accession is traditionally dated to February 11, 660 BC, modern historians regard the entire chronicles regarding the earliest Emperors as late fabrications woven from legendary materials,[3][4] and treat the traditions regarding Jimmu as mythical.[5]

Name and title

The conventionally accepted names and dates of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of Emperor Kanmu (737–806), [6]when Oumi no Mifune conferred on all putative 'Emperors' before Ōjin, known until then as sumera no mikoto/ōkimi, the title of tennō or 'Heavenly Ruler', a Japanese pendant to the Chinese imperial title Tiān-dì (天帝). This practice had began under Empress Suiko, and took root after the Taika Reforms with the ascendancy of the Nakatomi.[7] Jimmu's name, like those of several other legendary emperors, was already attested among the ruler names of the Korean kingdom of Silla.[8] According to the legendary account in the Kojiki, Emperor Jimmu would have been born on February 13, 711 BC (the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar), and died, again according to legend, on March 11, 585 BC (both dates according to the lunisolar traditional Japanese calendar).

Legendary narrative

In Japanese mythology, the Age of the Gods is the period before Jimmu's accession.[9]

The story of Jimmu seems to rework legends associated with the Ōtomo clan, and its function was to establish that clan's links to the ruling family, just as those of Suijin arguably reflect Mononobe tales and the legends in Ōjin's chronicles seem to derive from Soga clan traditions.[10] Jimmu figures as a direct descendant of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. Amaterasu had a son called Ame no Oshihomimi no Mikoto and through him a grandson named Ninigi-no-Mikoto. She sent her grandson to the Japanese islands where he eventually married Konohana-Sakuya-hime. Among their three sons was Hikohohodemi no Mikoto, also called Yamasachi-hiko, who married Toyotama-hime. She was the daughter of Ryūjin, the Japanese sea god. They had a single son called Hikonagisa Takeugaya Fukiaezu no Mikoto. The boy was abandoned by his parents at birth and consequently raised by Tamayori-hime, his mother's younger sister. They eventually married and had a total of four sons. The last of these sons, Kan'yamato Iwarebiko, became Emperor Jimmu.[11]

Jimmu's migration

Depiction of bearded Emperor Jimmu with his emblematic long bow and an accompanying wild bird — artwork by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892).
The mausoleum of Emperor Jimmu in Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture.

Mythic records in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki describe, with distinct versions that often disagree on details, how Jimmu's brothers were born in Takachiho, the southern part of Kyūshū (in modern day Miyazaki prefecture), and decided to move eastward, as they found the location inappropriate for reigning over the entire country. Jimmu's older brother, Itsuse no Mikoto, originally led the migration, and led the clan eastward through the Seto Inland Sea with the assistance of local chieftain Sao Netsuhiko. As they reached Naniwa (modern day Ōsaka), they encountered another local chieftain, Nagasunehiko (lit. "the long-legged man"), and Itsuse was killed in the ensuing battle. Jimmu realized that they had been defeated because they battled eastward against the sun, so he decided to land on the east side of Kii Peninsula and to battle westward. They reached Kumano, and, with the guidance of a three-legged crow, Yatagarasu (lit. "eight-span crow"), they moved to Yamato. There, they once again battled Nagasunehiko and were victorious.

In Yamato, Nigihayahi no Mikoto, who also claim descent from the Takamagahara gods, was protected by Nagasunehiko. However, when Nigihayahi met Jimmu, he accepted Jimmu's legitimacy. At this point, Jimmu is said to have ascended to the throne of Japan.

According to the Kojiki, Jimmu died when he was 126 years old. This emperor's posthumous name literally means "divine might" or "god-warrior". It is undisputed that this identification is Chinese in form and Buddhist in implication, which suggests that the name must have been regularized centuries after the lifetime ascribed to Jimmu. It is generally thought that Jimmu's name and character evolved into their present shape just before[12] the time in which legends about the origins of the Yamato dynasty were chronicled in the Kojiki.[6]

The fluidity of Jimmu before the compilation of the Kojiki and of the Nihon Shoki is demonstrated by somewhat earlier texts that place three dynasties as successors to the mythological Yamato state. According to these texts, Jimmu's dynasty was supplanted by that of Emperor Ōjin, whose dynasty was supplanted by that of Emperor Keitai.[13] The Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki then combined these three mythical dynasties into one long and continuous genealogy.

No site for Jimmu's grave is clearly identified by tradition or mythology.[14]

Commemorating Jimmu's reign

The inner prayer hall of Kashihara Shrine in Kashihara, Nara, the principal shrine devoted to Emperor Jimmu

Veneration of Emperor Jimmu, who was said to be the divine founder of Japan's unbroken imperial line, was a central component of the imperial cult that formed following the Meiji restoration.[15][16] In 1872 the Meiji government announced a new holiday called Kigensetsu ("Era Day") commemorating the anniversary of Jimmu's mythical ascension to the throne 2,532 years earlier.[15][16] Between 1873 and 1945 an imperial envoy sent offerings every year to Mount Unebi, which was claimed to be Jimmu's tomb,[15] and in 1890 Kashihara Shrine was established nearby on the spot where Jimmu was said to have become Japan's first emperor.[16][17]

A grandiose Kigensetsu celebration was put on in the year 1940, reputed to be the 2,600th anniversary of Emperor Jimmu's enthronement, during which the government constructed the Hakkō Tower on the legendary site of Emperor Jimmu's palace near Miyazaki.[18] The tower was named after a nationalistic slogan, Hakkō ichiu (literally "eight cords, one roof") coined by Tanaka Chigaku in 1903[19] on the basis of phrasing found in the Nihon Shoki account of Jimmu's reign.[20] It was subsequently espoused by the Imperial government as an expression of Japanese expansionism from 1928 onwards.[21] The Japan Times in 1940 asserted that Emperor Jimmu, finding five races in Japan, had made them all as "brothers of one family."[22]Hakkō ichiu was thus employed in a way that envisioned the unification of the world (the "eight corners of the world") under the Japanese Emperor's "sacred rule".[23] The same year the Japanese government erected numerous stone monuments relating to key events ascribed to Jimmu in his legendary life, at "Emperor Jimmu Sacred Historical Sites", which still exist today.[24][25]

Kigensetsu was suspended in 1948 during the occupation of Japan, but was reinstated in 1966 as Kenkoku Kinen no hi ("National Foundation Day"), a patriotic holiday still celebrated in Japan today.[26] Although the propaganda narrative surrounding Jimmu's life was officially abandoned at the end of World War II, many Japanese history textbooks continued well into the 1970s to promote the story of Japan's divine origins and Jimmu's founding of an unbroken imperial line.[27]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ 神倭伊波礼琵古命:Kamu-Yamatö-ipare-biko (nö-mikötö) Donald Philippi, tr.Kojiki, University of Tokyo Press, 1969 p.488
  2. ^ Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, [Japanese Loyalism Reconstrued: Yamagata Daini's Ryūshi Shinron of 1759,] University of Hawai'i Press, 1995 pp.106-7.
  3. ^ Kelly, Charles F. "Kofun Culture," Japanese Archaeology. April 27, 2009.
  4. ^ Kitagawa, Joseph. (1987). On Understanding Japanese Religion, p. 145, p. 145, at Google Books; excerpt, "... emphasis on the undisrupted chronological continuity from myths to legends and from legends to history, it is difficult to determine where one ends and the next begins. At any rate, the first ten legendary emperors are clearly not reliable historical records."
  5. ^ Boleslaw Szczesniak,'The Sumu-Sanu Myth. Notes and Remarks on the Jimmu Tenno Myth,' in Monumenta Nipponica,Vol. 10, No. 1/2 (1954), pp. 107-126.
  6. ^ a b Aston, William. (1896). Nihongi, pp. 109–137.
  7. ^ Jacques H. Kamstra Encounter Or Syncretism: The Initial Growth of Japanese Buddhism, Brill 1967 pp.65-67.
  8. ^ Jacques H. Kamstra Encounter Or Syncretism: The Initial Growth of Japanese Buddhism, Brill 1967 p.67.
  9. ^ Nussbaum, "Jindai" at p. 421, p. 421, at Google Books.
  10. ^ Jacques H. Kamstra, Encounter Or Syncretism: The Initial Growth of Japanese Buddhism, Brill 1967 pp.69-70.
  11. ^ Nussbaum, "Chijin-godai" at p. 111, p. 111, at Google Books.
  12. ^ Kennedy, Malcolm D. A History of Japan. London. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1963.
  13. ^ Ooms, Herman. Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: the Tenmu Dynasty, 650–800. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009
  14. ^ Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō): 神武天皇 (1); retrieved August 22, 2013.
  15. ^ a b c Martin, Peter. (1997). The Chrysanthemum Throne: A History of the Emperors of Japan, p. 18-20.
  16. ^ a b c Ruoff, Kenneth. (2001). The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, p. 21-23.
  17. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, p. 419.
  18. ^ Walter Edwards, "Forging Tradition for a Holy War: The 'Hakkō Ichiu' Tower in Miyazaki and Japanese Wartime Ideology," Journal of Japanese Studies, Summer 2003, 289-324.
  19. ^ Tanaka coined the phrase in a four-hour lecture given in November 1903, Kōso no Kenkoku to Honge no Taikyō.(皇宗の建国と本化の大教) The lecture was published in April 1904 as Sekai Tōitsu no Tengyō (世界統一の天業). In the written version (1903) he used 天地一宇. In his 1912-1913 lectures he reverts to 八紘一宇, ‘his succinct version of the Nihongi wording (whose Chinese text gave him trouble in interpreting). ‘This is the origin, it seems, of the slogan adopted by the ultra-nationalists of the 1930s and 1940s'. Edwin B. Lee, ‘Nichiren and Nationalism: The Religious Patriotism of Tanaka Chigaku,’. in Monumenta Nipponica 1975, 30:1 (1975).pp.19-35 pp.28-29.
  20. ^ 然後、兼六合以開都、掩八紘而為宇、不亦可乎 in Sakamoto Tarō, Ienaga Saburō, Inoue Mitsusada, Ōno Susumu (eds.) Nihon Shoki Iwanami Koten Bungaku Taikei 67, 1967 p.213
  21. ^ Bix, Herbert. (2001). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, p. 200-201.
  22. ^ Dower, John W., War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War, faber and faber, 1993 p.223.
  23. ^ Earhart, David C. (2007). Certain Victory, p. 63.
  24. ^ Ruoff, Kenneth. (2010). Imperial Japan at its Zenith: The Wartime Celebration of the Empire's 2,600th Anniversary, p. 186.
  25. ^ Brownlee, John S. Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods, p. 180–185.
  26. ^ "Founding Day rekindles annual debate". The Japan Times. February 11, 1998. Retrieved May 24, 2014. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  27. ^ Tokutake, Toshio. (1995). 教科書の戦後史, p. 172-178.

References

Regnal titles
New creation Emperor of Japan
660–585 BC
(Traditional dates) 		Succeeded by

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