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Jimmu
Emperor of Japan
Reign	18 February 660 BC – 9 April 585 BC (traditional)
Successor	Suizei
Born	13 February 711 BC (traditional) unknown
Died	9 April 585 BC (aged 126) Japan
Burial	Unebi-yama no ushitora no sumi no misasagi (畝傍山東北陵) (Kashihara, Nara)
Spouse	Ahiratsu-hime Himetataraisuzu-hime
Issue	Tagishimimi-no-mikoto Hikoyai-no-mikoto Kamuyaimimi-no-mikoto Emperor Suizei
Father	Ugayafukiaezu
Mother	Tamayori-bime

Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇, Jinmu-tennō) was the first Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. He is also known as Kan'yamato Iware-biko no Sumeramikoto (神日本磐余彦天皇) and personally as Wakamikenu no Mikoto (若御毛沼命) or Sano no Mikoto (狹野尊).

The Imperial house of Japan traditionally based its claim to the throne on its descent from Jimmu. While his accession is traditionally dated to 660 BC, no historically firm dates can be assigned to this early emperor's life or reign, nor to the reigns of his early successors. Most modern historians dismiss this entire period as being beyond what history can know and regard it as mythical or legendary. The reign of Emperor Kimmei (509?–571 AD), the 29th emperor, is the first for which contemporary historiography is able to assign verifiable dates.

Mythical characters

Modern scholars question the existence of at least nine early emperors. Emperor Jimmu's descendant Emperor Sujin is the first who many agree may have existed, in the first century BC. Most contemporary historians still agree that it is unlikely that any of the recorded emperors existed until about five hundred years after Suijin's reign and about a millennium after Jimmu's recorded reign. The name Jimmu-tennō was posthumously assigned by later generations.

The conventionally accepted names and dates of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of Emperor Kanmu (737–806), the 50th sovereign of the Yamato dynasty.

Archaeologists and historians regard Jimmu as mythical or legendary. He may have been a composite figure. According to the legendary account in the Kojiki, Emperor Jimmu would have been born on 13 February 711 BC (the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar), and died, again according to legend, on 11 March 585 BC (both dates according to the lunisolar traditional Japanese calendar).

Legendary narrative

In Japanese mythology, the Age of the Gods is the period before Jimmu's accession.

According to Shinto belief, Jimmu is regarded as a direct descendant of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. Amaterasu had a son called Ame no Oshihomimi no Mikoto and through him a grandson named Ninigi-no-Mikoto. She sent her grandson to the Japanese islands where he eventually married Konohana-Sakuya-hime. Among their three sons was Hikohohodemi no Mikoto, also called Yamasachi-hiko, who married Toyotama-hime. She was the daughter of Ryūjin, the Japanese sea god. They had a single son called Hikonagisa Takeugaya Fukiaezu no Mikoto. The boy was abandoned by his parents at birth and consequently raised by Tamayori-hime, his mother's younger sister. They eventually married and had a total of four sons. The last of these sons, Kan'yamato Iwarebiko, became Emperor Jimmu.

It is said that, soon after the beginning of Jimmu's reign, a Master of Ceremonies (祭主, saishu) was appointed.

Jimmu's migration

Mythic records in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki describe how Jimmu's brothers were born in Takachiho, the southern part of Kyūshū (in modern day Miyazaki prefecture), and decided to move eastward, as they found the location inappropriate for reigning over the entire country. Jimmu's older brother, Itsuse no Mikoto, originally led the migration, and led the clan eastward through the Seto Inland Sea with the assistance of local chieftain Sao Netsuhiko. As they reached Naniwa (modern day Ōsaka), they encountered another local chieftain, Nagasunehiko (lit. "the long-legged man"), and Itsuse was killed in the ensuing battle. Jimmu realized that they had been defeated because they battled eastward against the sun, so he decided to land on the east side of Kii Peninsula and to battle westward. They reached Kumano, and, with the guidance of a three-legged crow, Yatagarasu (lit. "eight-span crow"), they moved to Yamato. There, they once again battled Nagasunehiko and were victorious.

In Yamato, Nigihayahi no Mikoto, who also claim descent from the Takamagahara gods, was protected by Nagasunehiko. However, when Nigihayahi met Jimmu, he accepted Jimmu's legitimacy. At this point, Jimmu is said to have ascended to the throne of Japan.

According to the Kojiki, Jimmu died when he was 126 years old. This emperor's posthumous name literally means "divine might" or "god-warrior". It is undisputed that this identification is Chinese in form and Buddhist in implication, which suggests that the name must have been regularized centuries after the lifetime ascribed to Jimmu. It is generally thought that Jimmu's name and character evolved into their present shape just before the time in which legends about the origins of the Yamato dynasty were chronicled in the Kojiki.

The fluidity of Jimmu before the compilation of the Kojiki and of the Nihon Shoki is demonstrated by somewhat earlier texts that place three dynasties as successors to the mythological Yamato state. According to these texts, Jimmu's dynasty was supplanted by that of Emperor Ōjin, whose dynasty was supplanted by that of Emperor Keitai. The Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki then combined these three mythical dynasties into one long and continuous genealogy.

No site for Jimmu's grave is clearly identified by tradition or mythology.

Commemorating Jimmu's reign

Veneration of Emperor Jimmu, who was said to be the divine founder of Japan's unbroken imperial line, was a central component of the imperial cult that formed following the Meiji restoration. In 1872 the Meiji government announced a new holiday called Kigensetsu ("Era Day") commemorating the anniversary of Jimmu's alleged ascension to the throne 2,532 years earlier. Between 1873 and 1945 an imperial envoy sent offerings every year to Mount Unebi, which was claimed to be Jimmu's tomb, and in 1890 Kashihara Shrine was established nearby on the spot where Jimmu was said to have become Japan's first emperor.

A grandiose Kigensetsu celebration was put on in the year 1940, reputed to be the 2,600th anniversary of Emperor Jimmu's enthronement, during which the government constructed the Hakkō Tower on the legendary site of Emperor Jimmu's palace near Miyazaki. The tower was named after the ancient phrase of Hakkō ichiu (literally "eight cords, one roof"), which had been attributed to Emperor Jimmu and, since 1928, had been espoused by the Imperial government as an expression of Japanese expansionism. Hakkō ichiu envisioned the unification of the world (the "eight corners of the world") under the Emperor's "sacred rule", just as Emperor Jimmu, finding five races in Japan, had made them all as "brothers of one family." The same year the Japanese government erected numerous stone monuments relating to key events in Jimmu's life which were called "Emperor Jimmu Sacred Historical Sites" and which still exist today.

Kigensetsu was suspended in 1948 during the occupation of Japan, but was controversially reinstated in 1966 as Kenkoku Kinen no hi ("National Foundation Day"), a patriotic holiday still celebrated in Japan today. Although the propaganda narrative surrounding Jimmu's life was officially abandoned at the end of World War II, many Japanese history textbooks continued well into the 1970's to promote the story of Japan's divine origins and Jimmu's founding of an unbroken imperial line.

See also

• Imperial cult
• Xu Fu
• Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines
• The Age of the Gods
• Emishi people
• Jomon period

Notes

1. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan, pp. 28–29; "Jimmu" at Britannica.com; retrieved 2013-8-28.
2. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 1-3; Brown, Delmer M. (1979). Gukanshō, p. 249; Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki, pp. 84–88.
3. ^ Kelly, Charles F. "Kofun Culture," Japanese Archaeology. 27 April 2009.
4. ^ Kitagawa, Joseph. (1987). On Understanding Japanese Religion, p. 145, p. 145, at Google Books; excerpt, "... emphasis on the undisrupted chronological continuity from myths to legends and from legends to history, it is difficult to determine where one ends and the next begins. At any rate, the first ten legendary emperors are clearly not reliable historical records."
5. Titsingh, pp. 34–36; Brown, pp. 261–262; Varley, pp. 123–124.
6. Hoye, Timothy. (1999). Japanese Politics: Fixed and Floating Worlds, p. 78; excerpt, "According to legend, the first Japanese emperor was Jimmu. Along with the next 13 emperors, Jimmu is not considered an actual, historical figure. Historically verifiable Emperors of Japan date from the early sixth century with Kimmei.
7. Yoshida, Reiji. "Life in the Cloudy Imperial Fishbowl," Japan Times. March 27, 2007; retrieved 2013-8-22.
8. Brinkley, Frank. (1915). A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the end of the Meiji Era, p. 21, p. 21, at Google Books; excerpt, "Posthumous names for the earthly Mikados were invented in the reign of Emperor Kammu (782–805), i.e., after the date of the compilation of the Records and the Chronicles.
9. ^ Aston, William. (1896). Nihongi, pp. 109–137.
10. Nussbaum, "Jindai" at p. 421, p. 421, at Google Books.
11. Nussbaum, "Chijin-godai" at p. 111, p. 111, at Google Books.
12. Kennedy, Malcolm D. A History of Japan. London. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1963.
13. Ooms, Herman. Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: the Tenmu Dynasty, 650–800. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009
14. Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō): 神武天皇 (1); retrieved 2013-8-22.
15. ^ Martin, Peter. (1997). The Chrysanthemum Throne: A History of the Emperors of Japan, p. 18-20.
16. ^ Ruoff, Kenneth. (2001). The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, p. 21-23.
17. Ponsonby-Fane, p. 419.
18. Bix, Herbert. (2001). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, p. 201.
19. Earhart, David C. (2007). Certain Victory, p. 63.
20. Dower, John W. (1993). War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War, p. 223.
21. Ruoff, Kenneth. (2010). Imperial Japan at its Zenith: The Wartime Celebration of the Empire's 2,600th Anniversary, p. 186.
22. Brownlee, John S. Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods, p. 136, 180–185.
23. "Founding Day rekindles annual debate". The Japan Times. 11 February 1998. Retrieved 24 May 2014. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
24. Tokutake, Toshio. (1995). 教科書の戦後史, p. 172-178.

References

• Aston, William George. (1896). Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, Volume 1. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. OCLC 448337491
• Bix, Herbert P. (2001). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York: HarperCollins. 10-ISBN 0-06-093130-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-06-093130-8
• Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. 10-ISBN 0-520-03460-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; OCLC 251325323
• Brownlee, John S. (1997). Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-0645-1
• Chamberlain, Basil Hall. (1920). The Kojiki. Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on 12 April 10 May, and 21 June 1882; reprinted, May, 1919. OCLC 1882339
• Earhart, David C. (2007). Certain Victory: Images of World War II in the Japanese Media. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. 10-ISBN 0-7656-1776-5; 13-ISBN 978-0-7656-1776-7
• Kitagawa, Joseph Mitsuo. (1987). On Understanding Japanese Religion. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 10-ISBN 0691073139/13-ISBN 9780691073132; 10-ISBN 0691102295/13-ISBN 9780691102290; OCLC 15630317
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01753-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Odai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691
• Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki: A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns. New York: Columbia University Press. 10-ISBN 0-231-04940-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-231-04940-5; OCLC 59145842

External links

• A more detailed profile of Jimmu
• A detailed summary of Jimmu's descent legend

v t e Emperors of Japan (list)
Legendary	Jōmon 660 BC–291 BC Jimmu Suizei Annei Itoku Kōshō Kōan Yayoi 290 BC–269 AD Kōrei Kōgen Kaika Sujin Suinin Keikō Seimu Chūai Jingū
Yamato	Kofun 269–539 Ōjin Nintoku Richū Hanzei Ingyō Ankō Yūryaku Seinei Kenzō Ninken Buretsu Keitai Ankan Senka Asuka 539–710 Kinmei Bidatsu Yōmei Sushun Suiko Jomei Kōgyoku Kōtoku Saimei Tenji Kōbun Tenmu Jitō Monmu Genmei
Nara	710–794 Genmei Genshō Shōmu Kōken Junnin Shōtoku Kōnin Kanmu
Heian	794–1185 Kanmu Heizei Saga Junna Ninmyō Montoku Seiwa Yōzei Kōkō Uda Daigo Suzaku Murakami Reizei En'yū Kazan Ichijō Sanjō Go-Ichijō Go-Suzaku Go-Reizei Go-Sanjō Shirakawa Horikawa Toba Sutoku Konoe Go-Shirakawa Nijō Rokujō Takakura Antoku Go-Toba
Kamakura	1185–1333 Go-Toba Tsuchimikado Juntoku Chūkyō Go-Horikawa Shijō Go-Saga Go-Fukakusa Kameyama Go-Uda Fushimi Go-Fushimi Go-Nijō Hanazono Go-Daigo
Northern Court	1333–1392 Kōgon Kōmyō Sukō Go-Kōgon Go-En'yū Go-Komatsu
Muromachi	1333–1573 Go-Murakami Chōkei Go-Kameyama Go-Komatsu Shōkō Go-Hanazono Go-Tsuchimikado Go-Kashiwabara Go-Nara Ōgimachi
Azuchi-Momoyama	1573–1603 Ōgimachi Go-Yōzei
Edo	1603–1868 Go-Yōzei Go-Mizunoo Meishō Go-Kōmyō Go-Sai Reigen Higashiyama Nakamikado Sakuramachi Momozono Go-Sakuramachi Go-Momozono Kōkaku Ninkō Kōmei Meiji
Empire of Japan	1868–1947 Meiji Taishō Shōwa
Japan	1947–present Shōwa Akihito Naruhito
Unless otherwise noted (as BC), years are in CE / AD  Imperial Consort and Regent Empress Jingū is not traditionally listed. Imperial family tree Imperial House Order of succession Imperial tombs Category

v t e Japanese mythology
Mythic texts	Kojiki Nihon Shoki Fudoki Kujiki Kogo Shūi Hotsuma Tsutae Nihon Ryōiki Konjaku Monogatarishū Shintōshū Butsuzōzui
Japanese creation myth	Kotoamatsukami (Hitorigami) Ame-no-Minakanushi Kamiyo (Kamiyonanayo) Kuniumi Kamiumi Izanami Izanagi
Takamagahara mythology	Amaterasu Susanoo Tsukuyomi Ame-no-Uzume
Izumo mythology	Yamata no Orochi Hare of Inaba Ōkuninushi Kuni-yuzuri Takeminakata
Hyūga mythology	Tenson kōrin Ninigi Konohanasakuya-hime Toyotama-hime
Human age	Emperor Jimmu Tagishimimi Kesshi Hachidai
Mythological locations	Ashihara no Nakatsukuni Ama-no-Iwato Onogoro Island Ne-no-kuni Ryūgū-jō Sanzu River Takamagahara Tokoyo no kuni Yomi
Mythological weapons	Amenonuhoko Kusanagi no Tsurugi Totsuka-no-Tsurugi Ame-no-ohabari Futsu-no-mitama [ja]
Major Buddhist figures	Amida Nyorai Daruma Five Tathagatas
Seven Lucky Gods	Benzaiten Bishamonten Daikokuten Ebisu Fukurokuju Hotei Jurōjin Kisshōten
Legendary creatures	Dragon Kappa Kitsune Oni Shinshi Tengu Yōkai Yūrei
Other	Shinigami Ryukyuan religion Amamikyu Tenson dynasty Ainu mythology Kamuy Kamuy-huci Hasinaw-uk-kamuy
Shinto deities Japanese deities Sacred objects Japanese religions Glossary of Shinto

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• Legendary Emperors of Japan
• Longevity traditions
• People of Jōmon-period Japan