Background
Tenno Go-Mizuno was born on 29 June 1596. Named Kotohito, he was the third son of Emperor Goyozei.
Tenno Go-Mizuno was born on 29 June 1596. Named Kotohito, he was the third son of Emperor Goyozei.
A devout Buddhist, he received instruction from the eminent monk Takuan.
In 1611 he ascended the throne to become the 108th sovereign. In 1629 Emperor Gomizuno-o, increasingly angered by shogunate interference, abdicated, turning over the throne to his daughter, who became Empress Meisho, the 109th sovereign, though he continued until his death some fifty years later to take an active part in matters of state.
He built the Shugaku-in Detached Palace in the northeastern suburbs of Kyoto and was also an expert in flower arrangement. After a long life devoted to cultural activities, he was buried in the Sennyu-ji, where so many of the members of the imperial family are interred.
He was fond of learning and art, eagerly listening to lectures on the Confucian Four Books and such classics of Japanese literature and poetry as the Tales of Ise and Kokin wakashii. He was an accomplished poet.
In 1620 he took the daughter of the second Tokugawa shogun, Hidetada, whose name was Kazuko, to be his empress.