Emperor Annei

Emperor Annei (安寧天皇, Annei-tennō), also known as Shikitsuhikotamatemi no Mikoto (師木津日子玉手見命) was the third legendary Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.[3][4] Very little is known about this Emperor due to a lack of material available for further verification and study. Annei is known as a "legendary emperor" among historians as his actual existence is disputed. Nothing exists in the Kojiki other than his name and genealogy. Annei's reign allegedly began in 549 BC, he had one wife and three sons. After his death in 511 BC, his second or third son supposedly became the next emperor.

Annei
Emperor of Japan
Reign	549 BC – 511 BC (traditional)[1]
Predecessor	Suizei
Successor	Itoku
Born	567 BC[2]
Died	511 BC (aged 56)
Burial	Unebi-yama no hitsujisaru Mihodo no i no e no misasagi (畝傍山西南御陰井上陵) (Kashihara)
Spouse	Nunasoko-Nakatsu-hime
Issue	Okisomimi-no-Mikoto Emperor Itoku Shikitsuhiko-no-Mikoto
Posthumous name Japanese style: Shikitsuhikotamatemi no Sumeramikoto (磯城津彦玉手看天皇), also Shikitsuhikotamatemi no Mikoto (師木津日子玉手見命) Chinese style: Emperor Annei (安寧天皇)
House	Imperial House of Japan
Father	Emperor Suizei
Mother	Isuzuyori-hime
Religion	Shinto

Legendary narrative

Emperor Annei's name appears in both the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki where only his genealogy are recorded. While the Japanese have traditionally accepted this sovereign's historical existence, no extant contemporary records have been discovered that confirm a view that this historical figure actually reigned. Before his accession to the throne, he was allegedly known as Prince Shikitsu-hiko Tamatemi.[5] Shikitsu-hiko Tamatemi was either the eldest son or the only son of Emperor Suizei with Isuzuyori-hime.[4][6] The Kojiki records that he ruled from the palace of Ukena-no-miya (片塩浮穴宮, and in the Nihon Shoki as 片塩浮孔宮) at Katashiro in Kawachi in what would come to be known as Yamato Province.[6] During Emperor Annei's alleged lifetime, he had one wife named "Nunasoko-Nakatsu-hime" and fathered three children with her. Annei's reign lasted from 549 BC until his death in 511 BC, his second or third son then took the throne and would later be referred to as Emperor Itoku.[6][7]

Memorial Shinto shrine and mausoleum honoring Emperor Annei.

Known information

The existence of at least the first nine Emperors is disputed due to insufficient material available for further verification and study.[8] Annei is thus regarded by historians as a "legendary Emperor", and is considered to have been the second of eight Emperors without specific legends associated with them.[lower-alpha 1] The name Annei-tennō was assigned to him posthumously by later generations, and literally means "steady tranquillity".[10] His name might have been regularized centuries after the lifetime ascribed to Annei, possibly during the time in which legends about the origins of the Yamato dynasty were compiled as the chronicles known today as the Kojiki.[9] The name "Annei" is first credited to Japanese scholar and writer Ōmi no Mifune, who allegedly came up with the name sometime in the latter half of the 8th century.[11]

While the actual site of Annei's grave is not known, the Emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) in Kashihara. The Imperial Household Agency designates this location as Annei's mausoleum, and is formally named Unebi-yama no hitsujisaru Mihodo no i no e no misasagi(The royal tomb over the mihodo at the south west of mount unebi) .[4] The first emperor that historians state might have actually existed is Emperor Sujin, the 10th emperor of Japan.[12] Outside of the Kojiki, the reign of Emperor Kinmei[lower-alpha 2] (c. 509 – 571 AD) is the first for which contemporary historiography is able to assign verifiable dates.[15] The conventionally accepted names and dates of the early Emperors were not confirmed as "traditional" though, until the reign of Emperor Kanmu[lower-alpha 3] between 737 and 806 AD.[9]

Consorts and Children

Empress: Nunasoko-Nakatsu-hime (渟名底仲媛命), Prince Kamo's daughter (Kotoshironushi's son)

• First Son: Prince Okisomimi (息石耳命)
• Second Son: Prince Ōyamatohikosukitomo (大日本彦耜友尊), later Emperor Itoku
• Prince Shikitsuhiko (磯城津彦命)

See also

• Emperor of Japan
• List of Emperors of Japan
• Imperial cult

Notes

1. Also known as the "eight undocumented monarchs" (欠史八代, Kesshi-hachidai).[9]
2. The 29th Emperor[13][14]
3. Kanmu was the 50th sovereign of the Yamato dynasty

References

Japanese Imperial kamon — a stylized chrysanthemum blossom

1. "Genealogy of the Emperors of Japan" (PDF). Kunaicho.go.jp. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
2. Kenneth Henshall (2013). Historical Dictionary of Japan to 1945. Scarecrow Press. p. 487. ISBN 9780810878723.
3. "安寧天皇 (3)". Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō) (in Japanese). Retrieved May 8, 2019.
4. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard (1959). The Imperial House of Japan. Ponsonby Memorial Society. p. 29 & 418.
5. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780674017535.
6. Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida (1979). A Translation and Study of the Gukanshō, an Interpretative History of Japan Written in 1219. University of California Press. p. 251. ISBN 9780520034600.
7. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Ōdai Ichiran (in French). Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. p. 4.
8. Kelly, Charles F. "Kofun Culture". www.t-net.ne.jp. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
9. Aston, William George. (1896). Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, Volume 2. The Japan Society London. pp. 109, 141–142.
10. Brinkley, Frank (1915). A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the end of the Meiji Era. Encyclopaedia Britannica Company. p. 21. Posthumous names for the earthly Mikados were invented in the reign of Emperor Kanmu (782–805), i.e., after the date of the compilation of the Records and the Chronicles.
11. Britannica Kokusai Dai-Hyakkajiten article "Ōmi no Mifune". Britannica.
12. Yoshida, Reiji. (March 27, 2007). "Life in the Cloudy Imperial Fishbowl". Japan Times. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
13. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Ōdai Ichiran (in French). Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. pp. 34–36.
14. Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida (1979). A Translation and Study of the Gukanshō, an Interpretative History of Japan Written in 1219. University of California Press. pp. 261–262. ISBN 9780520034600.
15. Hoye, Timothy. (1999). Japanese Politics: Fixed and Floating Worlds. Prentice Hall. p. 78. ISBN 9780132712897. 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.

Further reading

• Aston, William George. (1896). Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. OCLC 448337491
• Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; OCLC 251325323
• Chamberlain, Basil Hall. (1920). The Kojiki. Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on April 12, May 10, and June 21, 1882; reprinted, May, 1919. OCLC 1882339
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 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 Ōdai 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. ISBN 978-0-231-04940-5; OCLC 59145842