Background
Tenno Konin was born on November 18, 709. The personal name of Emperor Konin (imina) was Shirakaba. He was a son of Imperial Prince Shiki and a grandson of Emperor Tenji, His formal style was Prince Shirakabe.
Tenno Konin was born on November 18, 709. The personal name of Emperor Konin (imina) was Shirakaba. He was a son of Imperial Prince Shiki and a grandson of Emperor Tenji, His formal style was Prince Shirakabe.
Tenno Konin was first appointed Dainagon (vice-minister). As Empress regnant Shotoku had no male heir, he was enthroned Crown Prince and ascended the throne (770). During his 10 years of rule Tenno Konin weeded out all the evils of the former ruler and purged such trouble makers as Priest Dokyd and others. Nominated Prince Yamabe as his heir (781) and abdicated in his favor.
Soon after his enthronement in 770 (Hoki 1), he promoted his wife Imperial Princess Ikami to the empress and appointed her son Imperial Prince Osabe to the crown prince in the next year. As a grandson of Emperor Shōmu by his mother, Osabe was one of few descendants of Emperor Tenmu, the line of Tenmu however didn't succeed to the throne finally. In 772 Osabe was deprived of his crown prince rank and Imperial Prince Yamabe, an issue by another woman, later Emperor Kanmu was named heir.
According to the Shoku Nihongi, the replacement happened as follows: in the third month of Hoki 3 (772), Ikami was accused of cursing her husband and Emperor Kōnin stripped her of the rank of Empress. In the fifth month of this year his son Osabe was deprived his crown prince status. In Hōki 4 (773), both were alleged to have murdered Imperial Princess Naniwa, a sister of Kōnin by cursing. This allegation made those two stripped of the rank of royals. Those two were together enclosed in a house in Yamato Province and died two years later in the same day, on the 27th day of the fourth month of Hōki 6 (on the Julian Calendar, on May 29, 775).
In 772, soon after Osabe's deprivation of heir right, Prince Yamabe was named heir. His mother Takano no Niigasa, née Yamato no Niigasa, was a descendant of King Muryeong of Baekje. Since her clan had then no political power, his appointment had not been likely to happen without the deprivation of Osabe, the noblest male issue of Konin as the son of an Imperial Princess and Empress.
Today it is pointed out the accusations to Ikami and Osada were likely to be plotted for depriving her son of the throne, and they were likely to be assassinated, by Fujiwara no Momokawa.
The late years of Kōnin's reign and the early years of Kanmu's reign suffered disasters. The people took those disasters as vengeance of noble victims of political conflicts, including late Ikami and Osada. In 800 during the reign of Kanmu, the late Princess Ikami was restored to the rank of Empress. Several shrines and temples were also founded for redemption, including Kamigoryo Shrine.
