Emperor Itoku

Lua error in Module:Unicode_data at line 293: attempt to index local 'data_module' (a boolean value). was the 4th emperor of Japan,[3] according to the traditional order of succession.[4] Historians consider Emperor Itoku to be a legendary person,[5] and the name Itoku-tennō was created for him posthumously by later generations.

Itoku
Tennō Itoku thumb.jpg
Emperor of Japan
510 BC – 477 BC (traditional)[1]
PredecessorAnnei
SuccessorKōshō
Born553 BC[2]
Died477 BC (aged 76)
Burial
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SpouseAmonotoyototsu-hime
Issue
Posthumous name
Japanese style:Ōyamatohikosukitomo no Sumeramikoto (大日本彦耜友天皇),
also Ōyamatohikosukitomo no Mikoto (大倭日子鉏友命)
Chinese style: Emperor Itoku (懿徳天皇)
HouseImperial House of Japan
FatherEmperor Annei
MotherNunasoko-Nakatsu-hime
ReligionShinto

No certain dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign.[6] The conventionally accepted names and sequence of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of Emperor Kammu, who was the 50th monarch of the Yamato dynasty.[7]

The Gukanshō records that he ruled from the palace of Migario-no-miya at Karu in what will come to be known as Yamato province.[8]

Traditional history

Itoku is almost certainly a legend. The Kojiki records only his name and genealogy. The Nihonshoki includes Itoku as the third of Lua error in Module:Unicode_data at line 293: attempt to index local 'data_module' (a boolean value)..[9]

The Gukanshō records that Itoku was the second or third son of Emperor Annei,[8] but the surviving documents provide no basis for making guesses about why the elder brother or brothers were passed over.[10]

During reign of Emperor Itoku, the capital of Japan was at Karu, Yamato.[11]

Events of Itoku's life

 
The mausoleum (misasagi) of Emperor Itoku in Nara Prefecture.

The absence of information about Itoku does not imply that no such person ever existed. Very little information is available for study prior to the reign of the 29th monarch, Emperor Kimmei (509?-571).[12]

After his death

This emperor's official name after his death (his posthumous name) was regularized many centuries after the lifetime which was ascribed to Itoku.[13]

The actual site of his grave is not known. According to the Imperial Household Agency, this emperor is venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) at Nara.[3]

Emperor Itoku Media

Related pages

References

 
The chrysanthemum symbol of the Japanese emperor and his family.
  1. "Genealogy of the Emperors of Japan" (PDF). Kunaicho.go.jp. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  2. Kenneth Henshall (2013). Historical Dictionary of Japan to 1945. Scarecrow Press. p. 487. ISBN 9780810878723.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō), 懿徳天皇 (4); retrieved 2011-10-19.
  4. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, p. 4; Brown, Delmer. (1979). Gushankō, p. 251; Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki, p. 89; Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2002). "Traditional order of Tennō" in Japan encyclopedia, pp. 962-963.
  5. Kelly, Charles F. "Kofun Culture," Japanese Archaeology. April 27, 2009; retrieved 2011-10-19.
  6. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan, pp. 29-30.
  7. Aston, William George. (1896). Nihongi, pp. 109.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Brown, p. 251.
  9. Aston, pp. 142-143.
  10. Ponsonby-Fane, p. 29; Varley, p. 89.
  11. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1915). The Imperial Family of Japan, pp. 2-3.
  12. Titsingh, pp. 34-36; Brown, pp. 261-262; Varley, pp. 123-124.
  13. Aston, pp. 141-142.
Preceded by
Emperor Annei
Legendary Emperor of Japan
Itoku

510-476 BC
(traditional dates)
Succeeded by
Emperor Kōshō