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Daijō Tennō or Dajō Tennō (太上天皇) is a title for an Emperor of Japan who abdicates the Chrysanthemum Throne in favour of a successor.

As defined in the Taihō Code, although retired, a Daijō Tennō could still exert power. The first such example is the Empress Jitō in the 7th century. A retired emperor sometimes entered the Buddhist monastic community, becoming a cloistered emperor. During late Heian period, cloistered emperors wielded power in a system known as cloistered rule.

List

A total of 64 Japanese emperors have abdicated. A list follows:

Abdication during the Empire of Japan

Emperor Kōmei and the Shōgun

Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his squadron of what the Japanese dubbed "the Black Ships" sailed into the harbor at Edo (now known as Tokyo) in July 1853. Perry sought to open Japan to trade, and warned the Japanese of military consequences if they did not agree. During the crisis brought on by Perry's arrival, the Tokugawa shogunate took, for the first time in at least 250 years, the highly unusual step of consulting with the Imperial Court, and Emperor Kōmei's officials advised that they felt the Americans should be allowed to trade and asked that they be informed in advance of any steps to be taken upon Perry's return. Feeling at a disadvantage against Western powers, the Japanese government allowed trade and submitted to the "Unequal Treaties", giving up tariff authority and the right to try foreigners in its own courts. The shogunate's willingness to consult with the Imperial Court was short-lived: in 1858, word of a treaty arrived with a letter stating that due to shortness of time, it had not been possible to consult. Emperor Kōmei was so incensed that he threatened to abdicate—though even this action would have required the consent of the shōgun.

Meiji constitution on abdication

Emperor Meiji wished to allow a clause codifying the right to abdicate and the formal institution of Daijō Tennō in the new Meiji Constitution. The Prime Minister refused, stating that the Emperor should be above politics, and that in the past, the role of Daijō Tennō had most definitely been employed in the opposite fashion.

Emperor Taishō and regency

In 1921, it became clear that Emperor Yoshihito (later known by his reign name, Taishō, after death) was mentally incapacitated. In pre-modern Japan, he would have been forced to abdicate, but he was left in place and Crown Prince Hirohito (later Emperor Hirohito) was made Sesshō (regent).

Modern Era

In 2019, then Emperor Akihito abdicated in favour of then Crown Prince Naruhito. He was the first Emperor of Japan to abdicate in modern times.

See also

• Emeritus
• Taishang Huang – retired Chinese emperor
• Taesangwang – retired Korean ruler
• Retired Emperor (disambiguation)

References

Notes

1. Miner, Earl Roy; Morrell, Robert E.; 小田桐弘子 (21 September 1988). The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691008257 – via Google Books.
2. Varley, H. Paul . (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki, p. 137.
3. Varley, p. 137.
4. Varley, p. 137; Brown, Delmer et al. (1979). Gukanshō, p. 270.
5. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 64-65.
6. Varley, p. 140.
7. Brown, p. 298.
8. Titsingh, p. 155; Brown, p. 306; Varley, p. 190.
9. Titsingh, p. 154; Brown, p. 307; Varley, p. 44.
10. Brown, p. 306.
11. Brown, p. 316.
12. Titsingh, p. 171.
13. Varley, p. 202
14. Titsingh, p. 172.
15. Titsingh, p. 185.
16. ^ Titsingh, p. 186.
17. Titsingh, p. 186; Brown, p. 324; Varley, p. 44.
18. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1956). Kyoto: the Old Capital, 794-1869, pp. 340-341.
19. ...Sakuramachiden Gyokozu: information in caption text Archived 2008-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
20. "Emperor Akihito to Be Called Emperor Emeritus after Abdication". Nippon.com. 25 February 2019. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
21. ^ Gordon 2009, pp. 50–51.
22. Keene 2002, p. 18.
23. Keene 2002, pp. 39–41.

Bibliography

• Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. (1979). , Gukanshō; "The Future and the Past: a translation and study of the 'Gukanshō,' an interpretive history of Japan written in 1219" translated from the Japanese and edited by Delmer M. Brown & Ichirō Ishida. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03460-0
• Gordon, Andrew (2009). A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533922-2.
• Keene, Donald (2002). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912. Columbia University Press. ISBN 023112340X/ISBN 9780231123402; OCLC 46731178
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard A. B. (1956). Kyoto: The Old Capital of Japan, 794-1869. Kyoto: The Ponsonby Memorial Society.
• Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834). , Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.--Click for digitized, full-text copy of this book (in French)
• Varley, H. Paul, ed. (1980). , 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

External links

• National Archives of Japan. Scroll showing procession of Emperor Kōkaku who abdicated in Bunka 14 (1817)

• Ancient Japanese institutions
• Emperors of Japan
• Abdication
• Japanese emperors who abdicated