Antoku

Nii no Ama, Antoku's grandmother, drowns himself and Antoku after the lost sea ​​battle of Dan-no-ura ; symbolically, the daughter of the Dragon King, reborn as Antoku, returns to her father. Color woodcut by Yoshitsuya , 1856.

Antoku ( Japanese 安 徳 天皇 , Antoku-tennō ; * December 22, 1178 ; † April 25, 1185 in Dan-no-ura , Shimonoseki Street , Japan) was the 81st Tennō of Japan (April 22, 1180-24. March 1185). His proper name was Tokihito ( 言 仁 ). He was a grandson of Taira no Kiyomori , the most powerful politician of the time.

At the age of two, he was the second youngest Tennō to ever ascend the throne of Japan. His mother Tokuko (daughter of Kiyomori) came from only one samurai family, so his base at court was weak. Taira no Kiyomori was an excellent politician whom the real ruler, Ex-Tennō Go-Shirakawa , trusted for a long time. But the Taira clan became too powerful for the court and the connection between the Tennō Go-Shirakawa and the clan continued to cool. In contrast, the clan lost its cultural connection to the other samurais. In 1171, Kiyomori had enforced the marriage between Emperor Takakura and his daughter Tokuko. Their first son, Prince Tokihito, was born in 1178. In 1179, Kiyomori staged a coup d'état, forcing his rivals to resign from all government posts and banning them. He also captured the abdicated Emperor Go-Shirakawa, forced Takakura to abdicate in 1180, and put Prince Tokihito on the throne as Emperor Antoku.

This triggered the Gempei War . After the early death of Kiyomori, the abdicated Tennō Go-Shirakawa proclaimed the Taira clan as an enemy of the imperial court, and many samurai in Japan followed his call. The Klan lost many of the battles that followed. Many other samurai felt the clan was too weak to represent them. So the Taira clan lost its position of power, and when its opponents advanced on Kyoto , the clan fled with the child emperor Antoku from the capital Kyoto to the west. Antoku drowned during the naval battle of Dan-no-ura when his grandmother threw herself into the sea with him to avoid capture by Minamoto forces . His mother also attempted suicide this way, but was saved. She became a nun and lived in Ohara, a suburb of Kyoto.

Antoku's fate is a popular topic in Japanese literature.

Web links

• Family table of Japanese emperors (The Imperial Household Agency )

predecessor	Office	successor
Takakura	Emperor of Japan 1180–1185	Go-Toba