Emperor Sujin
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Emperor Sujin (崇神天皇, Sujin-tennō?) was the tenth imperial ruler of Japan to appear on the traditional list of emperors.[1] , Most modern scholars have come to question the existence of at least the first nine emperors; and Sujin is the first many agree might have actually existed, in third or fourth century.[2]
No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign. Sujin is regarded by historians as a "legendary emperor" because of the paucity of information about him, which does not necessarily imply that no such person ever existed. Rather, scholars can only lament that, at this time, there is insufficient material available for further verification and study.
According to Kojiki and Nihonshoki he was the second son of Emperor Kaika. He founded some important shrines in Yamato province, sent generals to subdue local provinces and defeated a prince who rebelled against him. He was credited with having subdued Queen Himiko or her successor; and yet there is another theory that Himiko was a paternal great-aunt of the Emperor Sujin.[3]
Later generations may have included this name to the list of emperors of Japan, thus making him posthumously an emperor and assigning him as one of the early sovereigns and ancestors of the dynasty that has reigned unbroken since time immemorial. If he lived, at his time the title tenno was not yet used, and the polity he possibly ruled did certainly not contain all or even the most of Japan. In the chronicle which encompasses his alleged successors in beginnings of historical time, it becomes reasonable to conclude that Suijin, if he existed, might have been a chieftain or a regional king in early Yamato tribal society.
Jien records that Kōan ruled from the palace of Mizogaki-no-miya at Shiki in what will come to be known as Yamato province.[4]
Sujin is a posthumous name. 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 Sujin, possibly during the time in which legends about the origins of the Yamato dynasty were compiled as the chronicles known today as the Kojiki.[3]
Although the final resting place of this legendary sovereign remains unknown, Sujin's officially designated Imperial misasagi or tomb can be visited today in Yanagimoto-cho, Tenri City near Nara City.[5]
[edit] Ambiguities
Ambiguities occur with other names of people such as Sujin Saj[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Brown, Delmer et al. (1979). Gukanshō, p. 253; Varley, Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki, pp. 93-95; Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 7-9.
- ^ "Life in the Cloudy Imperial Fishbowl," Japan Times. March 27, 2007.
- ^ a b Aston, William. (1998). Nihongi, Vol. 1, pp. 150-164.
- ^ Brown, p. 253.
- ^ Suijin's misasagi -- map
- Aston, William George. (1896). Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. [reprinted by Tuttle Publishing, Tokyo, 2007. 10-ISBN 0-8048-0984-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-8048-0984-9 (paper)]
- Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). [ Jien, c. 1220], Gukanshō (The Future and the Past, a translation and study of the Gukanshō, an interpretative history of Japan written in 1219). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03460-0
- Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652], Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon, tr. par M. Isaac Titsingh avec l'aide de plusieurs interprètes attachés au comptoir hollandais de Nangasaki; ouvrage re., complété et cor. sur l'original japonais-chinois, accompagné de notes et précédé d'un Aperçu d'histoire mythologique du Japon, par M. J. Klaproth. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland....Click link for digitized, full-text copy of this book (in French)
- Varley, H. Paul , ed. (1980). [ Kitabatake Chikafusa, 1359], Jinnō Shōtōki ("A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa" translated by H. Paul Varley). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-04940-4
[edit] See also
| Preceded by Emperor Kaika |
Legendary Emperor of Japan 97 BC-30 BC (traditional dates) |
Succeeded by Emperor Suinin |
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