Empress Gosakuramachi and the Imperial Court

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TSUJI, Hirohito (2025) Empress Gosakuramachi and the Imperial Court. EPOCH Magazine (19).

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Abstract

The Japanese Imperial Family is characterised by a male line of succession to the throne that has continued for 126 generations since first Emperor Jinmu. On the other hand, unlike after the modern era, when the imperial successors are princes only, there were eight empresses (female emperors) in the pre-modern times. The most recent empress was the 117th Empress Go-Sakuramachi. She succeeded to the throne because Crown Prince Hidehito (later 118th Emperor Go-Momozono) was only five years old. The conventional interpretation of the role of the empresses was a temporary middle successor. In fact, she remained unmarried throughout her life and left no direct descendants after she abdicated to Emperor Go-Momozono. She was also absent from several rituals, although Japanese emperors are not only state heads but also priest-kings. It must be because she was a woman. On the other hand, she is also known to have frequently assisted 119th Emperor Kōkaku, and was known as the 'national mother'. The Court in the early modern period had no military or economic power at all and was effectively under the control of the Shogun. Against this backdrop, she served food to the starving populace during a major famine without permission from the shogunate. Also, when Emperor Kōkaku demanded that the Shogunate bestow the title of Emperor Emeritus on his father Prince Sukehito, she admonished him to withdraw it. The fact that she led the sensitive relations between the Shogunate and the Court, even though both were a male-dominated society, does not mean the view that she was merely an ornament because she was a woman. At the least, genealogy, religion and politics should be considered separately. This paper discusses the position of the Imperial Family in early modern Japan from a gender perspective, using Empress Go-sakuramachi as a case study.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	japanese studies,arts and humanities(all),social sciences(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Related URLs:	https://www.epoch-magazine.com/post/empr...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	04 Apr 2025 14:30
Last Modified:	04 Apr 2025 14:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98958
DOI:

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