Emperor Kinmei
29th Emperor of Japan
Emperor Kinmei (欽明天皇, Kinmei-tennō; 509–571) was the 29th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign is said to have spanned the years from 539 to 571. Most historians support either the view that Kinmei is the first historically verifiable Japanese emperor or the view that Yuryaku (the 21st) is.
Traditional narrative
Kinmei's contemporary title would not have been tennō, as most historians believe this title was not introduced until the reigns of Emperor Tenmu and Empress Jitō. Rather, it was presumably Sumeramikoto or Amenoshita Shiroshimesu Ōkimi (治天下大王), meaning "the great king who rules all under heaven". Alternatively, Kinmei might have been referred to as ヤマト大王/大君 or the "Great King of Yamato".
Events of Kinmei's life
Because of several chronological discrepancies in the account of Emperor Kinmei in the Nihon Shoki, some believe that he was actually ruling a rival court to that of Emperors Ankan and Senka. Nevertheless, according to the traditional account, it was not until the death of Emperor Kinmei's older brother Emperor Senka that he gained the throne.
Before he came to the throne (at least according to the Nihon Shoki) he was hesitant and refused to wield power stating:
I am young in years, and of shallow knowledge. I have not yet had experience of the affairs of government.
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This entry incorporates text from “Emperor Kinmei” 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.