Emperor Go-Mizunoo - Events of Go-Mizunoo's Life

Events of Go-Mizunoo's Life

Masahito-shinnō became emperor following the abdication of his emperor-father. The succession (the senso) was considered to have been received by the new monarch; and shortly thereafter, Emperor Go-Mizunoo is said to have acceded (the sokui). The events during his lifetime shed some light on his reign. The years of Go-Mizunoo's reign correspond with a period in which Tokugawa Hidetada and Tokugawa Iemitsu were leaders at the pinnacle of the Tokugawa shogunate.

• 29 June 1596: The birth of an Imperial prince who will become known by the posthumous name of Go-Mizunoo.

• 20 May 1610 (Keichō 15, 27th day of the 3rd month): Toyotomi Hideyori came to Miyako to visit the former-Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu; and the same day, Go-Yōzei announced his intention to renounce the throne.

• 9 May 1611 (Keichō 16): In the 26th year of Go-Yōzei-tennō 's reign (後陽成天皇26年?), he abdicated; and the reign of Emperor Go-Mizunoo is considered to have begun. The young emperor was aged 16.

• 1614 (Keichō 19): Siege of Osaka. Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada vanquished Toyotomi Hideyori and set fire to Osaka Castle, and then he returned for the winter to Edo.

• 26 November 1614 (Keichō 19, 25th day of the 10th month): A strong earthquake shook Miyako; and a great bell for the Daibutsu Temple in Miyako was cast.

• 1615 (Keichō 20): Osaka Summer Battle begins

• 1615 (Genna 1): Tokugawa Ieyasu and his son, Shogun Hidetada, marched again to Osaka Castle, which was captured and burned; but Hideyori managed to flee to Satsuma where he had prepared a refuge in advance.

• 6 January 1616 (Genna 2, 17th day of the 4th month): Ieyasu died at Suruga.

• 25 September 1617 (Genna 3, 26th day of the 8th month): Former-Emperor Go-Yōzei died. He is buried at the North Fukakusa Burial Mound (深草北陵, Fukakusa no Kita no Misasagi?).

• 1618 (Genna 4, 8th month): A comet appeared in the sky.

• 1620 (Genna 6): Tokugawa Masako, the daughter of Shogun Hidetada, entered the palace as a consort of the emperor; and the marriage was celebrated with great pomp.

• 2 April 1620 (Genna 6, 30th day of the 2nd month): Severe fire in Kyoto.

• 6 April 1620 (Genna 6, 4th day of the 3rd month): Severe fires in Kyoto.

• 1623 (Genna 9): Tokugawa Iemitsu, son of Hidetada, came to the court of the emperor where he was created Shogun.

• 25 October 1623 (Kan'ei 3, 6th day of the 9th month): Go-Mizunoo visits Nijō Castle, which was built in 1586 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi

• 1627 (Kan'ei 6): The "Purple Clothes Incident" (紫衣事件, shi-e jiken?): The Emperor was accused of having bestowed honorific purple garments to more than ten priests despite the shogun's edict which banned them for two years (probably in order to break the bond between the Emperor and religious circles). The shogunate intervened making the bestowing of the garments invalid. The priests which had been honored by the emperor were send into exile by the bakufu.

• 22 December 1629 (Kan'ei 6, 8th day of the 11th month): Go-Mizunoo abdicated. The emperor renounced the throne in favor of his daughter, Okiko, on the same day that the priests of the "Purple Clothes Incident" went into exile. Okiko became the Empress Meishō.

For the rest of his long life, Go-Mizuno-in concentrated on various aesthetic projects and interests, of which perhaps the best-known are the magnificent Japanese gardens of the Shugaku-in Imperial Villa.

• 11 September 1680 (Enpō 8, 19th day of the 8th month): Former-Emperor Go-Mizunoo died.

Go-Mizunoo's memory is honored at Sennyū-ji in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto where a designated Imperial mausoleum (misasagi) is located. It is named Tsukinowa no misasagi. Also enshrined are this emperor's immediate Imperial successors – Meishō, Go-Kōmyō, Go-Sai, Reigen, Higashiyama, Nakamikado, Sakuramachi, Momozono, Go-Sakuramachi and Go-Momozono.