Emperor Senka

Emperor Senka (宣化天皇, Senka-tennō), also known as Senkwa, was the 28th emperor of Japan,^[1] according to the traditional order of succession.^[2]

No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign, but he is conventionally considered to have reigned from 536–539.^[3]

Legendary narrative

Keitai is considered to have ruled the country during the early-6th century, but there is a paucity of information about him. There is insufficient material available for further verification and study.

When Emperor Ankan died, he had no offspring; and succession passed to his youngest brother who will come to be known as Emperor Senka. Emperor Senka was elderly at the time of his enthronement; and his reign is said to have endured for only three years.

Senka's contemporary title would not have been tennō, as most historians believe this title was not introduced until the reigns of Emperor Tenmu and Empress Jitō. Rather, it was presumably Sumeramikoto or Amenoshita Shiroshimesu Ōkimi (治天下大王), meaning "the great king who rules all under heaven." Alternatively, Senka might have been referred to as (ヤマト大王/大君) or the "Great King of Yamato."

During this reign, Soga no Iname^[4] is believed to have been the first verifiable "Great Minister" or Omi (also identified as Ō-omi).

This emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) at Nara. The Imperial Household Agency designates this location as Senka's mausoleum.^[1] It is formally named Musa no Tsukisaka no e no misasagi;^[5] however, the actual sites of the graves of the early emperors remain problematic, according to some historians and archaeologists.

See also

• Emperor of Japan
• List of Emperors of Japan
• Imperial cult

Notes

References

• Aston, William George. (1896). Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. OCLC 448337491
• Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. 10-ISBN 0-520-03460-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; OCLC 251325323
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Odai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691
• Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki: A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns. New York: Columbia University Press. 10-ISBN 0-231-04940-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-231-04940-5; OCLC 59145842

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