- Emperor Sujin
was the tenth imperial ruler of
Japan to appear on the traditional list of emperors. [Brown, Delmer "et al." (1979). "Gukanshō," p. 253; Varley, Paul. (1980). "Jinnō Shōtōki," pp. 93-95; Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). "Annales des empereurs du japon," pp. 7-9.] , Most modern scholars have come to question the existence of at least the first nine emperors; and Sujin is the first many agree might have actually existed, in third or fourth century. [ [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070327i1.html "Life in the Cloudy Imperial Fishbowl,"] "Japan Times." March 27, 2007.]No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign. Sujin is regarded by historians as a "legendary emperor" because of the paucity of information about him, which does not necessarily imply that no such person ever existed. Rather, scholars can only lament that, at this time, there is insufficient material available for further verification and study.
According to "
Kojiki " and "Nihonshoki " he was the second son ofEmperor Kaika . He founded some important shrines inYamato province , sent generals to subdue local provinces and defeated a prince who rebelled against him. He was credited with having subdued QueenHimiko or her successor; and yet there is another theory thatHimiko was a paternal great-aunt of the Emperor Sujin.Aston, William. (1998). "Nihongi," Vol. 1, pp. 150-164.]Later generations may have included this name to the list of emperors of Japan, thus making him posthumously an emperor and assigning him as one of the early sovereigns and ancestors of the dynasty that has reigned unbroken since time immemorial. If he lived, at his time the title "tenno" was not yet used, and the polity he possibly ruled did certainly not contain all or even the most of Japan. In the chronicle which encompasses his alleged successors in beginnings of historical time, it becomes reasonable to conclude that Suijin, if he existed, might have been a chieftain or a regional king in early Yamato tribal society.
Jien records that Kōan ruled from the palace of "Mizogaki-no-miya" at Shiki in what will come to be known asYamato province . [Brown, p. 253.]Sujin is a
posthumous name . 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 Sujin, possibly during the time in which legends about the origins of theYamato dynasty were compiled as the chronicles known today as the "Kojiki ". [see above] ]Although the final resting place of this legendary sovereign remains unknown, Sujin's officially designated Imperial misasagi or tomb can be visited today in Yanagimoto-cho, Tenri City near
Nara City . [ [http://narashikanko.jp/english/aria_map/map_pdf/32.pdf Suijin's "misasagi" -- map] ]Notes
References
* Aston, William George. (1896). "
Nihongi : Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697". London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. [reprinted byTuttle Publishing , Tokyo, 2007. 10-ISBN 0-8048-0984-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-8048-0984-9 (paper)]
* Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). [Jien , c. 1220] , "Gukanshō (The Future and the Past, a translation and study of the Gukanshō, an interpretative history of Japan written in 1219)." Berkeley:University of California Press . ISBN 0-520-03460-0
* Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō , 1652] , "Nipon o daï itsi ran ; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon." Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. [http://books.google.com/books?id=18oNAAAAIAAJ&dq=nipon+o+dai+itsi+ran ...Click link for digitized, full-text copy of this book (in French)]
* Varley, H. Paul , ed. (1980). [Kitabatake Chikafusa , 1359] , "Jinnō Shōtōki ("A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa" translated by H. Paul Varley)." New York:Columbia University Press . ISBN 0-231-04940-4ee also
*
Emperor of Japan
*List of Emperors of Japan
*Imperial cult
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