Emperor of Japan

The Emperor of Japan (天皇 tennō) is Japan's titular head of state and the head of the Japanese Imperial Family.

Although the role of the Emperor has alternated between that of a supreme-rank cleric with largely symbolic powers and that of an actual imperial ruler from the dawn of history until the mid-twentieth century, the main function of the Emperor was merely to authorize and to legitimate those in power for most of the last millenium. Under Japan's present constitution, the emperor is a largely ceremonial figurehead constitutional monarch (see Politics of Japan).

The current Emperor is His Majesty The Emperor Akihito, who has been on the throne since his father Emperor Showa (Hirohito) died in 1989.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Imperial Palace has been called Kōkyo (皇居), which is located on the site of the Edo Castle in the heart of Tokyo. Earlier emperors resided in Kyoto for nearly eleven centuries.

Certain dates and details may be in dispute among Japanese historians. Even a quick perusal of a list of Japanese Emperors (such as the one below) shows that some of the Emperors cited died at a very young age and can hardly be said to have "ruled" in any serious sense of the word. Others were overshadowed by their predecessors, who had ostensibly retired to a monastery but continued to exert influence in a process called "cloistered rule". It is nevertheless important to maintain the entire list, because the dating the reigns of emperors is the standard way of referencing Japanese history, even today.

Roles

The emperor's role is defined in Chapter I of the 1947 Constitution of Japan. Article 1 defines the emperor as the symbol of state. Article 7 gives the emperor power to perform the functions of head of state subject to the advice and approval of the cabinet. In contrast with other constitutional monarchs, the emperor of Japan has no reserve powers.

Although the Emperor performs many of the roles of a head of state, there has been a persistent controversy within Japan as to whether the Emperor is in fact head of state or merely someone who acts as one, as a political servant of a republican state. In a traditional monarchy political power flows from the "top down," with power being exercised by politicians on behalf of the so-called roayl perrogative. However, if there is no royal perrogative then the politicians hold supreme control, and the system is reversed, with the monarch actually being subordinate to them. According to this theory the Emperor is thus best understood as a political actor who has a formal job within the government, but not the "Head" of the state as such since he is not at the top of the political hiearchy. Efforts in the 1950s by conservative powers to amend the constitution to explicitly name the Emperor as head of state were rejected. Regardless, the Emperor does perform all the diplomatic functions normally associated with a head of state and as a result is recognized as such by foreign powers.

History

Although the Emperor has been a symbol of continuity with the past, the amount of power exercised by the Emperor of Japan has varied considerably across Japanese history. The earliest emperors recorded in Kojiki and Nihonshoki, such as the Emperor Jimmu, are considered today to have no historical existence. Historians think the first emperor who existed historically was the Emperor Ojin, but the time of his reign is uncertain. Those two books state that the imperial house kept the a continuous lineage, but today some historians doubt the possibility some ancient emperors who were stated as a descendant of Erperor Ojin had no actual geneologic tie to their predecessor. The members of the imperial house of Japan rarely marry members of royal families of other countries. According to the chronicles of Japan II (續日本紀), Emperor Kammu's mother(Takano-no niigasa) was a 200 year old descendant of King Muryeong of Baekje, Korea. This is an only one exception through the chronicles of Japan II. Takano's clan was low-class nobility in Japan so that Kammu was not a prospective person for tenno. Kammu and his father became tenno by power game between clans. From the 1100s to 1868, the real power was in the hands of the shoguns, who nevertheless were in theory always given their authority through the emperor. When Iberian 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).

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 as 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 who soldiers were indoctrinated to fight and die in the name of. The Emperor himself was hidden from sight however, and his actual role during this period is disputed, but 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 Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War.

Post World War II

After Japan's surrender to Allied forces ending WWII, 'Emperor' became a ceremonial title only, with 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, and Hirohito kept his status, though he was forced to disavow the emperor's previous claims of being a "arahitogami, living god".

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 explicity 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 to the throne. A change to this law is being considered, since, as of 2005, the only child of heir apparent Prince Naruhito is female. (In the list of emperors of Japan, the empresses regnant are those with an asterisk after their reigning periods.)

Naming

Due to language and cultural difference between Japanese 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 are used altogether and it seems there is no one concrete convention agreed yet. Among them are "Emperor {name}", the "{name} Emperor", and "{name} Tenno".

Various English dictionaries indicate that the term Mikado (御門/帝/みかど), which literally means "exalted gate", is used in English to refer to the Emperor of Japan; some indications are that it is now dated, as it is in Japanese. In Japanese, the emperors of Japan, but not of other countries, are known as tennō (天皇), which literally means "heavenly emperor/godking". Sumeramikoto was also used in Old Japanese.

There are three Japanese words that describes the concept of 'emperor'; 'tennō' (天皇)is used specifically to describe Japanese emperor, 'Kōtei' (皇帝, literally, the emperor of emperors) is used primarily to describe a Chinese emperor and a foreign emperor, 'Teiō' (帝王, literally, the emperor of kings) is used to describe foreign emperor as well but never on a Chinese emperor. Some scholars point out that use of 'ten-(天heaven)' was, in the relation to the Chinese concept of 'Tentei' (天帝, "heaven's emperor"), the god in the sky, meant to show that tennou's duty was not limited to political or military duty but of spiritual and religious one as well.

Traditional East Asians generally think it discourteous to call a person of noble rank by 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 Jimmu, 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 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 Kinjo). Summarised on the above, the current Emperor is not called by the current era name: the era would become his posthumous name. But today this custom tends to be loose, as the below. In English, the recent emperors are called by their personal names according to Western convention. As explained above, in Japanese it sounds offensive and in some contexts blasphemous.

For example, the 124th emperor is called Hirohito in English, but is always referred to as Shōwa Tennō in Japanese.

See List of Japanese Emperors

Succession

Japanese Imperial Family has already millennium and more ago developed its peculiar hereditary succession. It has been non-primogenitural, more or less agnatic, based mostly on rotation. Today, Japan uses strict agnatic primogeniture. In other words, the pure Salic Law. They adopted it from Prussia, from which they took much influence in 1870's.

Strich agnatic primogeniture is of course squarely against several old Japanese traditions of imperial succession.

The controlling principles and their interaction were apparently very complex and sophisticated, however leading to even idiosyncratic outcomes. Some chief principles apparent in the succession have been:

• females were allowed to succeed (but apparently not allowed to be inherited by their own children, unless the father of the child also happened to be an agnate of the imperial house). However, female accession was clearly much rarer than male.
• adoption was possible and much used way to increase the number of succession-entitled heirs (however, the adopted child should traditionally be a child of another member of the imperial house)
• abdication was used very often. More often than dying in office. A tenno usually served something like ten years. In those days, the tenno's chief task was priestly (or godly), containing so much repetitive rituals that it was deemed that the imcumbent deserved pampered retirement as honored former emperor (taistenno??).
• primogeniture was not used – rather, the imperial house practised something resembling a system of rotation. Very often a brother (or sister) followed the elder sibling even in case of the predecessor leaving children. The "turn" of the next generation came more often after several individuals of the senior generation. Rotation went often between two or more of the branches of the imperial house, thus more or less distant cousins succeeding each other. Tenno Go-Saga of Japan even decreed an official alternation between heirs of his two sons, which system continued for a couple of centuries (leading finally to shogun-induced (or -utilized) strife between these two branches, "Southern" and "Northern" Emperors). Towards the end, the alternates were very distant cousins counted in degrees of male descent (but all that time, intermarriages occurred within the imperial house).

See also

• Shogun
• Bakufu
• Cloistered rule
• History of Japan
• List of Emperors of Japan
• Lists of incumbents
• Imperial Household of Japan
• Ningen-sengen
• Japanese nationalism
• Japanese imperial regalia

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

External links

• The Imperial Household Agency

• List of the Emperors, accompanied with the regents and shoguns during their reign and a genealogical tree of the imperial family
• A Page from Washington State University