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Emperor Go-Mizunoo
Kotohito (政仁, 29 June 1596 – 11 September 1680), posthumously honored as Emperor Go-Mizunoo (後水尾天皇, Gomizunō Tennō), was the 108th Emperor of Japan,[1] according to the traditional order of succession.[2]: 113–115 Go-Mizunoo's reign spanned the years from 1611 through 1629,[3] and he was the first emperor to reign entirely during the Edo period. This 17th-century sovereign was named after the 9th-century Emperor Seiwa, sometimes posthumously referred to as Mizunoo (水尾) because this is the location of his tomb, and translates as "later", and thus, he could be called the "Later Emperor Mizunoo". The Japanese word go has also been translated to mean the "second one", and in some older sources, this emperor may be identified as "Mizunoo II". GenealogyBefore Go-Mizunoo's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (his imina) was Kotohito (政仁)[2]: 9 or Masahito.[3] He was the third son of Emperor Go-Yōzei and his consort, Konoe Sakiko. Prince Kotohito had 11 full siblings (7 sisters and 4 brothers). He resided together with concubines in the Dairi of the Heian Palace. He had 33 children with his empress consort and 6 concubines. Consort and issue(s):
EventsPrince Masahito became emperor following the abdication of his emperor-father. The succession (the senso) was considered to have been received by the new monarch; and shortly thereafter, Emperor Go-Mizunoo is said to have acceded (the sokui).[3][5] A distinct act of senso is unrecognized prior to Emperor Tenji; and all sovereigns except Jitō, Yōzei, Go-Toba, and Fushimi have senso and sokui in the same year until the reign of Emperor Go-Murakami. The events during Go-Mizunoo's lifetime shed some light on his reign. The years correspond with a period in which Tokugawa Hidetada and Tokugawa Iemitsu were leaders at the pinnacle of the Tokugawa shogunate. On 29 June 1596, Masahito, who would be known posthumously as Go-Minzunoo, was born.[6] Toyotomi Hideyori came to Miyako to visit the former-Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu on 20 May 1610 (Keichō 15, 27th day of the 3rd month); the same day, Go-Yōzei announced his intention to renounce the throne.[3] Following the abdication during the 26th year of Go-Yōzei-tennō's reign (後陽成天皇二十六年) on 9 May 1611 (Keichō 16), 16-year-old Go-Mizunoo became Emperor.[6][2]: 113 The Siege of Osaka, during which Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada vanquished Toyotomi Hideyori and set fire to Osaka Castle, occurred in 1614 (Keichō 19). He returned to Edo for the winter.[3] A strong earthquake struck on 26 November 1614 (Keichō 19, 25th day of the 10th month). A great bell for Daibutsu Temple in Kyoto was cast, also in that year.[3] The Osaka Summer Battle began in 1615 (Keichō 20). Tokugawa Ieyasu and his son, Shōgun Hidetada, marched again to Osaka Castle(Genna 1), which was captured and burned. Hideyori was thought to have died by suicide but his body was never found. It was rumored he had fled to Satsuma, where a refuge had been prepared for him in advance.[3] Ieyasu died at Suruga the following year (Genna 2, 17th day of the 4th month) and Former-Emperor Go-Yōzei died in 1617 (Genna 3, 26th day of the 8th month).[3] Go-Yōzei was buried at the North Fukakusa Burial Mound (深草北陵, Fukakusa no Kita no Misasagi). Tokugawa Masako, daughter of Shōgun Hidetada, entered the palace as a consort of the emperor and the two married (Genna 6).[2]: 113 [3] A number of severe fires broke out in Kyoto during April 1620 (Genna 6).[3] In 1623, the Emperor made Tokugawa Iemitsu, son of Hidetada, a Shōgun (Genna 9) and later visited Nijō Castle (Kan'ei 3, 6th day of the 9th month). The "Purple Robe Incident" (紫衣事件, shi-e jiken) occurred in 1627 (Kan'ei 6) when the Emperor was accused of having bestowed honorific purple garments to more than ten priests despite the shōgun's edict which banned them for two years, a practice probably set in place to break the bond between the Emperor and religious circles. The shogunate intervened and made the bestowing of the garments invalid. The priests which had been honored by the emperor were sent into exile by the bakufu.[2]: 114 Go-Mizunoo abdicated on 22 December 1629 (Kan'ei 6, 8th day of the 11th month), renouncing the throne to his daughter, Okiko, on the same day that the priests of the "Purple Robe Incident" went into exile.[6][2]: 114 [3] Okiko became the Empress Meishō. For the rest of his long life, Go-Mizuno-in concentrated on various aesthetic projects and interests, of which perhaps the best-known are the magnificent Japanese gardens of the Shugakuin Imperial Villa.[2]: 114  Former Emperor Go-Mizunoo died on 11 September 1680 (Enpō 8, 19th day of the 8th month).[3]: 186 [6] Go-Mizunoo's memory is honored at Sennyū-ji in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto where a designated Imperial mausoleum (misasagi) is located. It is named Tsuki no wa no misasagi. Also enshrined are this emperor's immediate Imperial successors – Meishō, Go-Kōmyō, Go-Sai, Reigen, Higashiyama, Nakamikado, Sakuramachi, Momozono, Go-Sakuramachi and Go-Momozono.[2]: 423 KugyōKugyō (公卿) is a collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre-Meiji eras. Even during those years in which the court's actual influence outside the palace walls was minimal, the hierarchic organization persisted. In general, this elite group included only three to four men at a time. These were hereditary courtiers whose experience and background would have brought them to the pinnacle of a life's career. During Go-Mizunoo's reign, this apex of the Daijō-kan included: Kampaku, Kujō Yukiie (1608–1612), Kampaku, Takatsukasa Nobuhisa (1612–1615), Kampaku, Nijō Akizane (1615–1619), Kampaku, Kujō Yukiie (1619–1623), Kampaku, Konoe Nobuhiro, (1623–1629),[7] Kampaku, Ichijō Akiyoshi (1629), Sadaijin, Udaijin, Konoe Nobuhiro (1619),[2]: 113 Naidaijin, and Dainagon ErasThe years of Go-Mizunoo's reign are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengō: Keichō (1596–1615), Genna (1615–1624), and Kan'ei (1624–1644).[3] Ancestry
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