Emperor Reigen

Emperor Reigen was the 112th emperor of Japan. He was a son of Emperor Go-Mizunoo by his consort Shin-Kôgimon-in. He was the last of Go-Mizunoo's children to reign, succeeding his half-brother Emperor Go-Sai in 1663, and reigning until his abdication on 1687/3/21, at which time he was succeeded by Emperor Higashiyama.

Following a fire on 1673/5/8 which destroyed large parts of the city, including the Imperial Palace, Emperor Reigen commandeered the Konoe family mansion, forcing Konoe Motohiro and his family (including Reigen's full sister, Motohiro's wife, Princess Shinanomiya Tsuneko) to relocate elsewhere for a time.[1]

Reigen abdicated in 1687 in favor of one of his sons, who then took the throne as Emperor Higashiyama.[2] One of his daughters, Yasunomiya Yoshiko, was betrothed in 1715, at the age of two, to Shogun Tokugawa Ietsugu (then seven years of age), though Ietsugu died the following year before the two were wed.[3]

Preceded by
Emperor Go-Sai
Emperor of Japan
1663-1687
Succeeded by
Emperor Higashiyama

References

  • Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), Told Round a Brushwood Fire, University of Tokyo Press (1979), 315n100.
  • Cecilia Segawa Seigle, "Shinanomiya Tsuneko: Portrait of a Court Lady," in Anne Walthall (ed.), The Human Tradition in Modern Japan, Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 4-5.
  1. Seigle, 10.
  2. Evelyn Rawski, Early Modern China and Northeast Asia: Cross-Border Perspectives, Cambridge University Press (2015), 157.
  3. Watanabe Hiroshi, A History of Japanese Political Thought, 1600-1901, International House of Japan (2012), 153-154.