Kōtoku

The emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇, Kōtoku Tennō , 597 - November 24th 654) was the thirty-sixth emperor Japan, according to the traditional order of the succession. He reigned of the July 12th 645 with his death.

Genealogy

Its personal name was prince Karu. Going down from the emperor Bidatsu, he is a son of prince Chinu by the Kibihime princess, and thus a young brother of the empress Kōgyoku whom he succeeds. Chinu was a son of the prince Oshisaka hikohito No ōe, him even wire of the Bidatsu emperor. Kōtoku at least had three consorts, including his empress, Hashihito No Himemiko (Hashihito princess), the girl of the Jomei emperor and his Kōgyoku sister.

Empress and consorts

Hashihito Princess, girl of the emperor Jomei and the Takara empress; empress in 645; empress dowager; died in 665.
Abe No Otarashi Hime, girl of Abe No Kurahashi Maro; imperial wife; it had a child:

Prince Arima ° 640 + 658

Soga Chi No Iratsume, wire of Soga Ishikawamaro; imperial wife.

Biography

In 645, during the first reign of his Kōgyoku sister, the Soga clan tries to take the control of the court, and the prince Naka No Ōe assassinates Soga No Iruka, the chief of the clan, right in front of the throne (see the article Itsushi No hen) . Shocked, the empress abdicates in favor of her son the crown prince Naka No Ōe, but this one insists that it is Kōtoku which goes up on the throne, which it does two days after these events.

The Taika era

The Taika era began the third year of the reign of the empress Kōgyoku (645). Kōtoku, while going up on the throne, introduced the permier in Japan the use of the Nengō or honorary titles of the years hard reign of the emperors. It named the first years of his Taika.

Taika gannen (ja 大化元年) or Taika 1 (645): Kōtoku introduced the Réforme of Taika (ja 大化の改新, Taika No kaishin ). This systematic reform (ja 律令, Ritsuryō or ritsuryô ) consists of a series of articles written under the reign of the Kōtoku emperor. The emperor divided the empire into eight provinces, and regulated the rank of all the officers of the government, which it distinguished by nineteen kinds of bonnets of forms and different colors, according to their rangs.Tisingh, I. (1834). Yearly of the emperors of Japan, p. 48.

Taika 1 (645): The Kōtoku emperor left Asuka, capital traditional hitherto. He transferred the capital to Naniwa surroundings the bay from Ōsaka and centralized there without delaying the capacity. Kōtoku resided in a palate which it had lately made build on a headland. The name of this palate was Toyosaki No Miya in Nagara, in the vicinity of Naniwa in the Province of Settsu (ja 摂津国 '' Settsu-No kuni ''). -- history with the municipal site of Osaka

Taika 2, 1st of the 1st month (646): Kōtoku fixed the days of the great audiences of the court. It establishes, in all the provinces of the empire, the magistratures, the barriers and of the relays of station, the country according to the mountains and the rivers divided, placed governors in each province, and fixed the wages of the carriers. IT named chiefs in the districts and the villages, and the first made record the number of the mansions and the inhabitants of each place, the taxes to be paid and the product of the grounds. It introduced the reviews of the infantry and of the cavalry, it ordered to take in each family hundred a beautiful woman for the service of the palate. Every year it sent an officer in each province to examine leads it governors. It also made build stores and arsenals. The udaijin Sogo Yamada Isikawa maro was charged to inform him of all the faults which it could make in the government. It was him which invented and introduced mainly the label that one observes incurs with short. Naka No Ōe - shinno and the regent Nakatomi No Kamatari advised all these measurements to him.

Taika 5, 7th of the 3rd month (649): The sadaijin Abe No Kurahashi Maro died.

Taika 5, 20th of the 4th month (649): Kose No Toko No Ō-omi (593-658) was made sadaijin almost after its predecessor morut.

Taika 5, 3rd month (649): Sogo-No Kiyouga, younger brother of the udaijin Soga Yamada Ishikawa Maro, having informed the emperor whom his older brother wove a conspiracy, the emperor sent people armed to his residence to put it at death. Committed suicide Yamada. In the continuation, when its innocence was proven, his/her Kiyouga brother was exiled in Tokachi (ja 十勝国) on the island of Hokkaido, which then was a wild and deserted country.

Taika 5, 4th month (649): Ōtomo Nagatoko No Muraji was made udaijin; they had the hat of crimson.

Taika 5 (649): Establishment of the new system of the government (the Hasshō hyakkan), eight administrations or ministries and hundred offices.

Taika 6 (650): One enoya of the province of Nagato to the emperor a white pheasant; what was judged of good omen. The emperor of it was very-content, and manda all the people of his court to show them this bird. Kōtoku manda that prince de Nagato was advanced in row of a degree.

According to the Nihon Shoki , Kōtoku has a noble personality and is favorable to the Bouddhisme, and very inspired by the China. In 645, it creates a new city in a place called Naniwa, and moves the capital of Asuka towards this new city. The new capital lays out of a Seaport and is thus perfect for the diplomatic trade and activities. The following year, Kōtoku sets up the Réforme of Taika, reorganizing the empire on the Chinese model.

The Hakuchi era

The Hakuchi era began the sixth year of Taika (650). With this occasion, the nengō was changed into Hakuchi, which wants to say white Haisan.

Hakuchi gannen (ja 白雉元年) or Hakuchi 1 (650): Kōtoku manda that the prisoners were freed in all the empire.

Hakuchi 2 (651): The emperor made make an image of Buddha, high of sixteen feet, according to which one engraved thousand other images of this divinity. He assembled in his palate two thousand and hundred monks and nuns, charged to read there injure books of the law of Buddha ( issai kyō ). On this occasion, the court was illuminated of two thousand seven hundred lanterns.

Hakuchi 4 (653): The emperor sent Kiso-No osani to the head of an embassy, at the court of the emperor Tang of China, which accepted it in official audience. Several Japanese priests accompanied this embassy. Among them was Zio yè, wire of Fujiwara No Kamatari, which since founded the large temple of the mountain of Fafou-No mine-No kaï san in the Province of Yamato. The embassy turned over to Naniwa with pounds Chinese and several treasures of China. According to the Nihon Shoki , several ships cannot join China because of shipwrecks. Kōtoku also reinforces the bonds of Japan with the Korea.

Hakuchi 5 (654): Kōtoku died old 59 after a ten years reign -- five years of the nengō Taika, and five years of the nengō Hakuchi.

Continuous Naka No Ōe to carry the rank of crown prince, and is leading the de facto government. In 653, he proposes redéplacer the capital in the Province of Yamato. Kōtoku refuses, but the prince does not take account of this opinion and turns over to Asuka. Many members of the court, including the Hashihito empress follow it, and the emperor remains almost alone and forgotten in his palate. He dies the following year of disease. Naka No Ōe always refusing to go up on the throne, its mother, the former empress Kōgyoku, goes up on the throne under the new name of reign of Saimei.

References

and that of English and a translation of Japanese Wikipedia (without references)

To see too

(in) Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō ; " Future And the Past: translation and study the “Gukanshō,” year interpretive has off history off Japan written in 1219 " translated from the Japanese and edited by Delmer Mr. Brown & Ichirō Ishida. Berkeley: University off California Near. ISBN 0-520-03460-0
(Fr) Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Rin-siyo, [[1652]]. Japanese O daï itsi ran; or, Annals of the emperors of Japan, tr. by Mr. Isaac Titsingh with the assistance of several interpreters attached to the Dutch counter of Nangasaki; work Re., supplemented and horn. on the original Japanese-Chinese, accompanied by notes and preceded by a mythological Outline of history by Japan, by Mr. J. Klaproth. Paris: Asiatic Society Eastern Translation Fund off Great Britain and Ireland. --'' Two exemplires digitalized of this rare book was now made available on line: (1) of the library of the university of Michigan, digitalized January 30, 2007; and (2) of the library of the university of Stanford, digitalized June 23, 2006. '' You can consult it while clicking here.
(in) Varley, H. Paul, ED. (1980). Chitafusa, [[1359]], Jinnō Shōtōki (" In Chronicle off Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki off Kitabatake Chikafusa" translated by H. Paul Varley). New York: Columbia University Near. ISBN 0-231-04940-4

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