Sutoku-tennō (崇徳天皇) (role 1124 – 1164)

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Biography:

The Historical Sutoku-tennō

E. Papinot wrote in the Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan on page 611: "Sutoku-tennō, 崇徳天皇. 75th Emperor of Japan (1124-1141). Akihito, eldest son of Toba-tennō succeeded his father at the age of 5. His great-grandfather, Shirakawa, and later his father, in company, with Taira Tadamori their favorite acted as regents. In 1136, Toba had a son by his favorite wife, Bifuku-mon-in (Fujiwara Toku-ko), and 6 months later, had him named heir presumptive; he then obliged Sutoku to resign in favor of his younger brother (Konoe-tennō) who, crowned when 2 years of age, died at 17. Toba now raised another of his sons Go-Shirakawa to the throne but Sutoku, aided by Fujiwara Yorinaga, tried to seize the crown. The great daimyō divided into two factions, and soon the Hōgen civil war began (1150). The partisans of Sutoku were defeated and he was banished to Sanuki, where he died in 1164. He was 46 years old."

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In Pointers and Clues to the Subjects of Chinese and Japanese Art by William Edmunds, from 1934, on pages 440-441 it says in the entry on Taira no Kiyomori:

"The real reason for this war was a question of succession to the throne. In 1123 the Emperor Toba abdicated in favour of his son Akihito, who became Sutoku-tenn6 at the age of five. After Toba’s abdication he added to his harem the Fujiwara Princess Toku-ko (Bifuku-mon-in), who, after the birth of a son, began to intrigue that her son should be made Crown Prince to Sutoku, as against the ex-Emperor’s older son Shigehito, and next induced her spouse to force Sutoku to abdicate in order that her son Narihito should be made Emperor as Konoe-tenn6 at the age of three, and that a daughter should succeed on the death of Konoe, but this raised such an opposition at court, that Toba had to nominate his fourth son Masahito, while Sutoku thought his son should have been appointed, and being in daily fear of being poisoned by Bifuku-mon-in he began to secretly gather his military men around him. Now the ex-Emperor Toba seems to have known that a revolt was brewing, for he prepared a list of the fighting men to be summoned, in which Kiyomori was not included, but for some reason unknown Bifuku-mon-in got Kiyomori in, when the fighting men were summoned, and thus paved the way for her own undoing. In 1155 Konoe died and his mother accused Sutoku of poisoning him, but on Konoe’s death Masahito succeeded as Go-Shirakawa-tenn6, and Toba threw his whole influence on the side of Go-Shirakawa. The nobles then split into two camps and the war started, the Taira and Minamoto families both divided in their allegiance, some fighting on one side, while others of the same family opposed them in a great struggle nominally as to the order of succession, but really for their own supremacy, Kiyomori being at one time allied with Minamoto no Yoshitomo on behalf of Go-Shirakawa, while Yoshitomo’s father Tameyoshi was on the side of Sutoku in company with Kiyomori’s uncle Taira no 'Tadamasa. Toba died in 1156 and eleven days after his death the first battle was fought at the Shirakawa no Goshō when Yoshitomo and Kiyomori gained a victory and Sutoku fled, to be caught and exiled to Sanuki."

On page 553 it says:

"The successor of the Emperor Toba was Akihito, his eldest son, who reigned as Sutoku-tennō until by the intrigue of his step-mother Bifukumonin he was deposed by his father, and as a result of the Civil war Hōgen no Ran was exiled to Sanuki, where he died in great misery in 1164. In 1169 while Saigyō was travelling in Sanuki he visited Sutoku’s tomb on the top of Mount Shiramine, and after gazing at it long and thoughtfully, recalling many of the scenes he had witnessed at the court, he wrote a poem apostrophising the dead Emperor thus: “I say my Lord, though in the old days you sat on the jewelled throne, now that you have come to this, what can you do?”

"As he turned away to descend the mountain, the burial mound gave forth a roar, and the sound of voices singing was heard; when turning again towards the mound, a vision appeared before him, and Saigyō saw the Emperor in his imperial vestments and gyōkwan or crown seated as at court with his nobles gathered around him. The spirit of the late Emperor then complained that while his soul could find no peace in the heavenly world, he was tortured by not knowing what was going on down below, when Saigyō told him all the news he could think of, and how in both the Taira and Minamoto families there was much dissension, the members of each being about equally divided and quarrelling one against the other, whereat Sutoku roared with joy, but Saigyō was depressed by the prediction that the Taira were soon to lie in the dust. On his return to the capital he found that Go-Shirakawa had abdicated, three other Emperors had followed him on the throne, and that the Minamoto were vastly increasing in power."