Go-Daigo

Go-Daigo (ca.1890), print by Gekko Ogata (1859–1920)

Go-Daigo ( Japanese 後 醍醐 天皇 , Go-Daigo-tennō , literally "'butter oil' of the later"; * November 26, 1288 ; † September 19, 1339 ) was the 96th Tennō of Japan (March 29, 1318– September 18, 1339). He was a son of Emperor Go-Uda and the father of Tennō Go-Murakami . With him ended in 1333 the reign of the Kamakura shogunate . His proper name was Takaharu ( 尊 治 ).

Go-Daigo ascended the throne on March 29, 1318. At that time there was a decision by the Kamakura Shogunate that the throne should change between the Daikakuji and Jimyōin lines every 10 years . However, Go-Daigo did not do so. In 1331 Go-Daigo's plan to overthrow the shogunate was revealed. The Kamakura Shogunate banished him to the island of Oki , (now Shimane Prefecture ) and appointed Kōgon as Tennō .

Go-Daigo had many ladies-in-waiting, and among them many sons and daughters. Some of his sons helped him as generals in his fight against the samurai in the Genkō War from 1331 to 1333. The exiled emperor Go-Daigo tried to gain military power. He won the trust of Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358), a general of the Kamakura shogunate, who had been sent to Kyoto in 1333 to put down the rebellion of Go-Daigo that had lasted since 1331. After Takauji had become increasingly disillusioned with the Shogunate rule, he joined Go-Daigo. Takauji then attacked the Rokuhara Tandai , the top commanders of the Kamakura Shogunate. Both tandai , Hōjō Nakatomi and Hōjō Tokimasu fled to the east, but were caught and killed in Provinzmi province . On July 7, 1333 Kōgon was dethroned as Tennō. Tennō Go-Daigo also deposed the previous Shōgun and made his own son, Prince Moriyoshi , (also known as Prince Morinaga) the Shōgun, giving him command over the military. According to his idea, the Tennō should rule the state directly as in ancient times and he gave the court nobility more power ( Kemmu restoration ). Ashikaga Takauji rebelled against Prince Moriyoshi and disempowered him. Prince Moriyoshi was killed by Takauji Ashikaga's younger brother Ashikaga Tadayoshi in 1335. The attempt at restoration by Tennō Go-Daigo finally failed in 1336 with the defeat of the imperial lord in the Battle of Minatogawa .

After the failure of the Kemmu restoration, Takauji appointed the Gegentennō Kōmyō , the brother of Kōgon, in 1336. Go-Daigo moved the courtyard away from Kyōto to the Yoshino Mountains ( time of the north and south courtyards ), today Nara prefecture , where his grave is. The imperial court split into the north and south dynasties . The dispute lasted until 1392 when the dynasty was united under the leadership of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Butter oil" is a Buddhist metaphor for the "Supreme Truth" (Japanese 最高 真理 , saikō shinri ). See e.g. B. Shinmura Izuru : Kōjien . 5th edition, Verlag Iwanami, Tokyo 2002. Lemma: 醍醐 . “The later one” (Japanese 後go ) refers to the fact that a Daigo -tennō (ruled 897-930) had already existed before him .

literature

• Andrew Edmund Goble: Kenmu. Go-Daigo's Revolution (= Harvard East Asian Monographs. Vol. 169). Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 1996, ISBN 0-674-50255-8 .
• Maria-Verena Blümmel: Court ceremonies in the Japanese Middle Ages. An investigation into the annual customs of the emperor Go-Daigo (Kemmu-nenjū-gyōji) (= publications of the East Asian seminar of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt / Main. Series B: East Asian Studies. Vol. 7). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1979, ISBN 3-447-01981-6 .

Web links

Commons : Emperor Go-Daigo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Hanazono	Emperor of Japan 1318–1339	Go-Murakami