Emperor Kenzō
Emperor of Japan
Emperor Kenzō (顕宗天皇, Kenzō-tennō) (449/50–487) was the 23rd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign, but he is conventionally considered to have reigned from 485 to 487.
Protohistoric narrative
Exile and Return
The Japanese have traditionally accepted this sovereign's historical existence, and a mausoleum (misasagi) for Kenzō is currently maintained. The following information available is taken from the pseudo-historical Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, which are collectively known as 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. It is recorded in the Kiki that Kenzō was born to Hae-hime (荑媛) sometime in 449 or 450 AD and was given the name Woke no Sumeramikoto (弘計天皇 or 袁祁王). At the time Woke already had an older brother named Oke no Sumeramikoto (億計天皇), and the two were both grandsons of Emperor Richū.
Woke would have been quite young when Emperor Yūryaku shot the arrow which killed his father, Ichinobe no Oshiwa during a hunting expedition. Fearful of their lives, both Prince Woke and his older brother, Prince Oke chose to flee into the countryside. According to Harima no Kuni Fudoki, they found refuge at Akashi in Harima Province where they hid by living in obscurity.
“Emperor Kenzō” enters the record as emperor of Japan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Emperor, Kenzō and Japan can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q360966. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Emperor Kenzō” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.