Emperor Kokaku was the ruler of Japan. He ascended the throne in 1780 and abdicated in 1817. After reigning for thirty-six years, he administered State affairs from the Palace of Retirement during twenty-four years, and throughout that long interval of sixty years. He also won considerable renown as a classical scholar.
Background
Emperor Kōkaku was born Kan'in Morohito on September 23, 1771, in Kyoto, Japan to the Kan'in-no-miya branch of the Imperial Family of Japan. He was a son of Prince Kan'in Sukehito and Ōe Iwashiro. After Emperor Go-Momozono died without any sons, Kôkaku, a member of a collateral line of the imperial family, married Go-Momozono's only daughter, Princess Yoshiko, in conjunction with being adopted by the Emperor and later taking the throne. Originally, Emperor Kōkaku intended to move from the Kan'in-no-miya family to Shogoin Temple to become a priest.
Education
Emperor Kōkaku received the traditional education of the representative of the Imperial Family of Japan.
Career
Beginning in 1782, Emperor Kōkaku lived in Shogoin Temple as his temporary palace for three years after the Kyoto Imperial Palace burned down. Moreover, in 1799 Imperial Prince (monk-prince) Shogoinnomiya Michihito issued a statement to the Emperor regarding En no gyoja go-onki (1,100th anniversary of the death of En no gyoja). On January 25 of the same year, the Emperor sent an imperial envoy to Shogoin Temple to convey the posthumous name of Jinben dai bosatsu.
At the Tenmei Famine, Kōkaku demanded that the government rescue people, and in regard to the conflict between Japan and Russia in the north, he made the government report the situation to him, whereupon he tried to restore the authority of the Imperial Palace. He intended to present the title of Retired Emperor to his father in defiance of the government; this incident was called Songo Ikken (conflict between the Imperial Palace and the Edo government).
Kōkaku worked hard to restore the events for the Imperial Palace, such as the special festivals of Iwashimizu Hachiman-gu Shrine and Kamo-jinja Shrine, and also to restore ceremonial rites of the Imperial Palace.
In 1817 Kōkaku became a retired emperor after he abdicated and passed the position to Emperor Nintoku (thus becoming the last retired emperor in Japan's history). He died in 1840.
Emperor Kōkaku was a popular ruler due to his effective management during the famine. He managed to strengthen the emperor's power during the Tokugawa shogunate period.
Kōkaku arranged to have the term Tennō ("Heavenly King," or "Emperor") employed to refer to him posthumously. This marked the revival of an ancient tradition, making himself the first emperor in roughly six hundred years to be officially called Tennō.
Religion
Emperor Kōkaku in childhood was destined to become a priest at the Shugoin Temple.
Politics
Emperor Kōkaku's politics resulted in strengthening government power in relation to Shogun's power.
Views
Kôkaku's reign was characterized by repeated efforts to raise the symbolic authority of the imperial court vis-a-vis the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1789, he petitioned the shogunate for permission to have his father, an imperial prince who never took the throne, be posthumously declared a "retired emperor" (dajôtennô). Tairô Matsudaira Sadanobu was ultimately successful in his opposition to this petition, but the "incident" which emerged from the conflict is said to have contributed to his fall from power.
Personality
Kōkaku was known to have many talents and loved to study and won considerable renown as a classical scholar.
Interests
learning
Connections
Emperor Kōkaku married Go-Momozono's only daughter, Princess Yoshiko, in conjunction with taking the throne. He also had a great number of concubines. Kōkaku was a father of 16 children (8 sons and 8 daughters) but only one of them survived into adulthood. The sole surviving child (Prince Ayahito from Kajyūji Tadako) later became Emperor Ninkō when Kōkaku abdicated the throne.
