Emperor Higashiyama - Events of Higashiyama's Life

Events of Higashiyama's Life

Prince Tomohito was the son of a secondary consort, Fujiwara no Muneko; but he was adopted by the Chugu Fusa-ko.

• 1682 (Tenna 3): Tomohito-shinnō is proclaimed Crown Prince; and a ceremonial investiture is held (after an abeyance of over 300 years).

• March 26, 1685 (Jōkyō 2, 22nd day of the 2nd month): Former-Emperor Go-Sai died; and a great comet was observed crossing the night sky.

In 1687, he acceded to the throne after the abdication of Emperor Reigen. On the 16th day of the 11th month of that year, he revived the Daijōsai (大嘗祭), the first ceremonial offering of rice by a newly enthroned Emperor.

Initially, Emperor Reigen continued to rule in Higashiyama's name, which caused much friction with the Bakufu. However, Higashiyama's gentle character helped to improve relations with the Bakufu, and imperial property was increased, and repairs were carried out on Imperial mausoleums.

• May 2, 1687 (Jōkyō 4, 21st day of the 3rd month): Emperor Reigen abdicated, which meant that his son received the succession (senso). Shortly thereafter, Emperor Higashiyama formally acceded to the throne (sokui). After abdication, Reigen's new home was called the Sentō-gosho (the palace for an ex-Emperor).

• December 20, 1688 (Jōkyō 4, on the 16th day of the 11th month): The esoteric Daijō-sai ceremony, having been in abeyance since the time of Emperor Go-Kashiwabara, a period spanning the reigns of nine emperors, was revived because of the shogunate's insistence. This Shinto ritual is performed only once by the emperor in the period of the enthronement ceremonies.

• 1688 (Genroku gannen): The Tokugawa shogunate revised the code of conduct for funerals (Fuku-kiju-ryō), which incorporated a code of conduct for mourning as well.

• September 16, 1689 (Genroku 2): German physician Engelbert Kaempfer arrives at Dejima for the first time. Bakufu policy in this era was designed to marginalize the influence of foreigners; and Kaempfer had to present himself as "Dutch" in dealings with the Japanese. Regardless of this minor subterfuge, an unintended and opposite consequence of sakoku was to enhance the value and significance of a very small number of thoughtful observers like Kaempfer, whose writings document what he learned or discovered first-hand. Kaempfer's published accounts and unpublished writings provided a unique and useful perspective for Orientalists and Japanologists in the 19th century; and his work continues to be rigorously examined by modern researchers today.

• 1695 (Genroku 8, 8th month): Minting begun of Genroku coinage. The shogunate placed the Japanese character gen (元) on the obverse of copper coins, the same character used today in China for the yuan. There is no connection between those uses, however.

• 1695 (Genroku 8, 11th month): First kennel is established for stray dogs in Edo. In this context, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi comes to be nicknamed the "Dog Shogun" (いぬくぼう 犬公方, Inu-kubō?).

• 1697 (Genroku 10): The fourth official map of Japan was made in this year, but it was considered to be inferior to the previous one—which had been ordered in 1605 (Shōhō 1) and completed in 1639 (Kan'ei 16). This Genroku map was corrected in 1719 (Kyōhō 4) by the mathematician Tatebe Katahiro (1644–1739), using high mountain peaks as points of reference, and was drawn to a scale of 1:21,600.

• 1697 (Genroku 10): Great fire in Edo.

• 1697 (Genroku 11): Another great fire in Edo. A new hall is constructed inside the enclosure of the Edo temple of Kan'ei-ji (which is also known as Tōeizan Kan’ei-ji or "Hiei-san of the east" after the principal temple of the Tendai Buddhist sect—that is to say, after the temple of Enryaku-ji at Mount Hiei near to Heian-kyo).

• 1703 (Genroku 16, 28th day of the 11th month): The Great Genroku Earthquake shook Edo and parts of the shogun's castle collapsed. The following day, a vast fire spread throughout the city. Parts of Honshū's coast were battered by tsunami, and 200,000 people were either killed or injured.

• 1701 (Genroku 13): when the Akō Incident took place, due to the bloodshed by Matsuno Ōroku, Emperor Higashiyama nearly withdrew the imperial will.

• October 28, 1707 (Hōei 4, 14th day of the 10th month): Great Hōei Earthquake. The city of Osaka suffers tremendously because of a very violent earthquake.

• November 15, 1707 (Hōei 4, 22nd day of the 10th month): An eruption of Mt. Fuji; cinders and ash fell like rain in Izu, Kai, Sagami, and Musashi.

• 1708 (Hōei 5): The shogunate introduces new copper coins into circulation; and each coin is marked with the Hōei nengō name (Hōei Tsubo).

• 1708 (Hōei 5, 8th day of the 3rd month): There was a great fire in Heian-kyō.

• 1708 (Hōei 5, 8th month): Italian missionary Giovanni Sidotti landed in Yakushima, where he was promptly arrested.

• 1709 (Hōei 6): Shogun Tsunayoshi appoints commission to repair and restore Imperial mausoleums.

• 1709 (Hōei 6, 10th day of the 1st month): The wife of Shogun Tsunayoshi killed him with a knife, and then she stabbed herself in the heart. Tsunayoshi's homosexual interests were aroused by the son of the daimyo of Kai; and his plans to adopt this Tokugawa youth as his successor were known by a few inside Edo castle. The shogun's wife, who was also a daughter of the emperor, foresaw that this choice of a successor would be very poorly received by many; and she feared that it might result in a disastrous civil war. The shogun's wife did everything she could to dissuade Tsunayoshi from continuing with such potentially divisive and dangerous plans; and when it became clear that her persuasive arguments were in vain, she resolutely sacrificed herself for the good of the country—she killed her husband and then killed herself.

• 1709 (Hōei 6, 4th month): Minamoto no Ienobu, Tsunayoshi's nephew, becomes the 6th shogun of the Edo bakufu. and Emperor Nakamikado accedes to the throne.

• July 27, 1709 (Hōei 6, 21st day of the 6th month): Emperor Higashiyama abdicated and the throne passed to his son.

• January 16, 1710 (Hōei 6, 17th day of the 12th month): Higashiyama died.

Higashiyama is among those enshrined in the Imperial mausoleum, Tsukinowa no misasagi, at Sennyū-ji in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto. Also enshrined in this location are this emperor's immediate Imperial predecessors since Emperor Go-Mizunoo – Meishō, Go-Kōmyō, Go-Sai and Reigen. Higashiyama's immediate Imperial successors, including Nakamikado, Sakuramachi, Momozono, Go-Sakuramachi and Go-Momozono, are enshrined here as well.