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Empress Jingu setting foot in the Promised Land. 1880 Yoshitoshi painting.

Empress Jingū (神功天皇, Jingū tennō^?), also known as Empress-consort Jingū (神功皇后, Jingū-kōgō^?), (c. AD 169 - 269) was a legendary empress of Chūai who also served as Regent and de facto leader from the time of her husband's death in 209 until her son Emperor Ōjin acceded to the throne in 269.¹ Up until the Meiji period, Jingū was considered to have been the 15th Japanese imperial ruler, according to the traditional order of succession;² but a re-evaluation of the extant historical records caused her name to be removed from that list; and her son, Emperor Ōjin, is today considered to have been the 15th sovereign.

Empress Jingu and her minister Takeuchi.

No firm dates can be assigned to this empress' life or reign. Jingū is regarded by historians as a "legendary" figure because of the paucity of information about her, 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. Jingū's name before her accession to the throne -- if she had acceded -- would have been Okinagatarashi-hime (息長帯比売). Legend has it that she led an army in an invasion of Korea and returned to Japan victorious after three years. However, this theory is widely rejected even in Japan as there is no evidence of Japanese rule in any part of Korea.³⁴⁵ Her son Ōjin was born following her return. The legend alleges that her son was conceived but unborn when Chūai died. After those three years, the boy was born. Either a period of less than nine months contained three "years" (some seasons), e.g. three harvests, or the paternity of her late husband was just mythical and symbolic, rather than real.⁶

Some believe that Empress Jingū's conquest is only based on the Gwanggaeto Stele. But the legend of Jingū's invasion of the Korean peninsula also appears in the ancient Japanese chronicles Kojiki written in 680 and Nihon Shoki written in 720. According to the Book "From Paekchae Korea to the Origin of Yamato Japan " the Japanese misinterpreted the Gwanggaeto Stele. The Stele was a tribute to a Korean King but because of a lack of punctuation the writing can be translated 4 different ways, this same Stele can be intrepreted as Korea crossed to Sea and subjugated Japan depending on where you punctuate the sentence. In addition, the Nihon Shoki also states that empress Jingu's ancestors were Korean.⁷⁸ Due to these inconsistentcies nothing conclusive can be stated about any of these documents.

Some claim that characters were modified and the Japanese presence added on the Gwanggaeto Stele. Today, most Chinese and Japanese scholars discredit the intentionally damaged stele theory based on the study of the stele itself⁹¹⁰ and the pre–Sakō and pre-lime-marred rubbings.¹¹ Japanese military activities, which were frequent in the time of Gwanggaeto, represent half of the stele. The interpretation of the stele is still debated because whether it was intentionally damaged or not the stele was damaged and the missing pieces make it impossible to translate.

The Chinese Book of Song of the Liu Song Dynasty, written by the Chinese historian Shen Yue (441-513), notes the Japanese presence in the Korean peninsula. However, the Liu Song dynasty, as a southern Chinese dynasty of ancient times, had little contact with northeast Asia and most historians in Japan, Korea, and elsewhere believe that this dynasty most likely treated Baekje, Silla, and Yamato Japan as one and the same. It is unlikely that this error was committed with regards to the Sui Dynasty and Goguryeo because they were major powers at the time.

The Chinese Book of Sui of the Sui Dynasty says that Japan provided military support to Baekje and Silla.¹²

According to the Samguk Sagi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), written in 1145, King Asin sent his son Jeonji as a hostage in 397.¹³And King Silseong of Silla sent his son as a hostage in 402; both were attempts to secure military aid from Yamato Japan so that the two nations could continue campaigns they had begun prior to the requests. Further complicating the relationship between the Japanese ruler and Korea is according to the Nihongi a Korean named Amenohiboko is suppose to be the maternal predecessor of empress Jingū. Whether the Koreans sent hostages or relatives with familial ties to Japan is debated.

Arai Hakuseki claimed that she was actually Himiko, the third century shaman-queen of Yamataikoku, and, because Himiko was a historical figure, had to be included as a member of the imperial family by the authors of the Nihon Shoki.

In 1881, Empress Jingū became the first woman to be featured on the Japanese banknote.¹⁴ Excluding the legendary Jingū, there were eight reigning empresses and their successors were most often selected from amongst the males of the paternal Imperial bloodline, which is why some conservative scholars argue that the women's reigns were temporary and that male-only succession tradition must be maintained in the 21st century.¹⁵ Empress Gemmei, who was followed on the throne by her daughter, Empress Genshō, remains the sole exception to this conventional argument.

Although the final resting place of this legendary regent/sovereign remains unknown, Jingū's officially designated misasagi or tomb can be visited today at Misasagi-cho, Nara City.¹⁶ This kofun-type Imperial tomb is characterized by a keyhole-shaped island located within a wide, water-filled moat.¹⁷

References

• 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

See also

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

External links

• Bank of Japan: ...Click link for image of Empress Jingū on bank note (1883)
• Stamp library: ...Click link for image of Empress Jingū on 10-yen violet postage stamp (1924)
• Stamp library: ...Click link for image of Empress Jingū on 10-yen green postage stamp (1924)

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 3 January 2009, at 21:34.

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