Emperor Seimu

The Japanese have traditionally accepted this sovereign's historical existence, and a mausoleum (misasagi) for Seimu is currently maintained. The following information available is taken from the pseudo-historical Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, which are collectively known as {{Nihongo|Kiki|記紀}} or Japanese chronicles. These chronicles include legends and myths, as well as potential historical facts that have since been exaggerated and/or distorted over time. The records state that Seimu was born to {{ill|Yasakairi-hime|lt=Yasakairi-hime|ja|八坂入媛命}} sometime in 84 AD, and was given the name {{Nihongo|Wakatarashihiko|稚足彦尊}}. It is unknown how he was chosen as crown prince, but Wakatarashihiko later ascended to the throne in 131 AD. Seimu is best known for organizing his local governments by appointing the first provincial governors and district officials.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A1nJbdwgQVUC&q=Seimu|title=The Chrysanthemum Throne: A History of the Emperors of Japan|author=Martin, Peter|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=1997|page=23|isbn=9780824820299|access-date=31 July 2019}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NnsEAAAAMAAJ|quote=emperor Seimu.|title=A History of the Japanese People: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era|author-link1=Francis Brinkley |last1=Brinkley|first1=Frank|author-link2=Kikuchi Dairoku|first2=Dairoku|last2=Kikuchi|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica Company|year=1915|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NnsEAAAAMAAJ/page/n86 87]–88|access-date=1 August 2019 }} While the details of his system of governing remain elusive, at the time Imperial princes were sent to important places in the provinces. These members are designated as wake, which represented their status as a branch of the Imperial family. It has been theorized by Brinkley and Kikuchi that these appointments of local governors were designed to extend the "prestige of the Court". Those that were eligible included "men of merit", Imperial princes, or chiefs of aboriginal tribes.

The records state that Seimu had a wife named {{Nihongo|Oho-takara|弟財郎女}}, who was the daughter of Take-oshiyama-tari-ne. Oho-takara bore the Emperor one child, named {{Nihongo|Prince Wakanuke|和訶奴気王}}. Seimu's only son appears to have died at a young age as the Emperor appointed Yamato Takeru's son as Crown Prince, before his own death in 190 AD at the age 107 years old. His nephew Tarashinakatsuhiko was later enthroned as the next emperor in 192 AD. Seimu's death marked an end of direct lineage from legendary Emperor Jimmu, and was the first split branch of others that later followed.

File:Seimu-tenno sakinotatanaminoikeshirinomisasagi1.jpg

Emperor Seimu is regarded by historians as a "legendary Emperor" as there is insufficient material available for further verification and study. His existence is open to debate given this lack of information.{{cite web|url=http://www.t-net.ne.jp/~keally/kofun.html|title=Kofun Culture|author=Kelly, Charles F.|work=t-net.ne.jp|access-date=31 July 2019}} If Seimu did exist, there is no evidence to suggest that the title tennō was used during the time period to which his reign has been assigned. It is much more likely that he was a chieftain, or local clan leader, and the polity he ruled would have only encompassed a small portion of modern-day Japan.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oEfAAAAYAAJ|title=Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, Volume 2|author=Aston, William George.|publisher=The Japan Society London|date=1896|page=109 & 214–216|isbn=9780524053478 |author-link=William George Aston}} The name Seimu-tennō was more than likely assigned to him posthumously by later generations.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryjapanes00kikugoog|title=A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the end of the Meiji Era|author=Brinkley, Frank|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica Company|year=1915|page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistoryjapanes00kikugoog/page/n33 21]|quote=Posthumous names for the earthly Mikados were invented in the reign of Emperor Kanmu (782–805), i.e., after the date of the compilation of the Records and the Chronicles.|author-link=Francis Brinkley}} His name might have been regularized centuries after the lifetime ascribed to Seimu, possibly during the time in which legends about the origins of the imperial dynasty were compiled as the chronicles known today as the Kojiki. There is a possibility that Seimu ruled during the first half of the 4th century when Japan became a unified state ruled from Yamato, making these accounts "not improbable".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzjWCgAAQBAJ&q=seimu+existence&pg=PA255|title=Kojiki|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2015|page=90|isbn=9781400878000|access-date=1 August 2019}}

While the actual site of Seimu's grave is not known, the Emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) at Nara. The Imperial Household Agency designates this location as Seimu's mausoleum, and is formally named Saki no Tatanami no misasagi.{{cite book|title=Studies in Shinto and Shrines|author=Ponsonby-Fane, Richard|publisher=Ponsonby-Fane Society Publications|year=1953|page=419}} Outside of the Kiki, the reign of Emperor Kinmei{{efn|The 29th Emperor{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4f5FrmIJKIC&pg=PA261|title=A Translation and Study of the Gukanshō, an Interpretative History of Japan Written in 1219|author-link1=Delmer Brown |last1=Brown|first1=Delmer M.|first2=Ichirō|last2=Ishida |publisher=University of California Press|year=1979 |pages=248, 261–262|isbn=9780520034600 }}}} ({{circa|509}} – 571 AD) is the first for which contemporary historiography has been able to assign verifiable dates.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=axRyAAAAMAAJ&q=According+to+legend%2C+the+first+Japanese+Emperor+was+Jimmu.+Along+with+the+next+13+Emperors%2C+Jimmu+is+not+considered+an+actual%2C+historical+figure.+Historically+verifiable+Emperors+of+Japan+date+from+the+early+sixth+century+with+Kimmei.|title=Japanese Politics: Fixed and Floating Worlds|author=Hoye, Timothy.|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=1999|page=78|quote=According to legend, the first Japanese Emperor was Jimmu. Along with the next 13 Emperors, Jimmu is not considered an actual, historical figure. Historically verifiable Emperors of Japan date from the early sixth century with Kimmei.|isbn=9780132712897}} The conventionally accepted names and dates of the early Emperors were not confirmed as "traditional" though, until the reign of Emperor Kanmu{{efn|Kanmu was the 50th sovereign of the imperial dynasty}} between 737 and 806 AD.

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

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File:Imperial Seal of Japan.svg — a stylized chrysanthemum blossom]]

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• Aston, William George. (1896). [https://books.google.com/books?id=_oEfAAAAYAAJ 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). [https://books.google.com/books?id=w4f5FrmIJKIC&q=Gukansho Gukanshō: The Future and the Past.] Berkeley: University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-03460-0}}; {{OCLC|251325323}}
• Chamberlain, Basil Hall. (1920). [http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kj/index.htm The Kojiki.] Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on 12 April, 10 May, and 21 June 1882; reprinted May 1919. {{OCLC|1882339}}
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959). [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLAeAAAAMAAJ&q=The+Imperial+House+of+Japan The Imperial House of Japan.] Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. {{OCLC|194887}}
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Ōdai Ichiran; ou, [https://books.google.com/books?id=18oNAAAAIAAJ&q=nipon+o+dai+itsi+ran Annales des empereurs du Japon.] Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. {{OCLC|5850691}}
• Varley, H. Paul. (1980). [https://books.google.com/books?id=tVv6OAAACAAJ Jinnō Shōtōki: A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns.] New York: Columbia University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-231-04940-5}}; {{OCLC|59145842}}

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{{Emperors of Japan}}

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Category:Legendary emperors of Japan

Category:People of the Yayoi period

Category:2nd-century monarchs in Asia

Category:2nd-century Japanese monarchs