Emperor Jimmu - Legendary Narrative

Legendary Narrative

Modern scholars question the existence of at least the first nine emperors. Jimmu's descendant, Emperor Sujin, is the first that many agree may have existed, in the third or fourth century. Most contemporary historians still agree that it is unlikely that any of the recorded emperors existed until about five hundred years after Suijin's reign and about a millennium after Jimmu's recorded reign. The name Jimmu-tennō was posthumously assigned by later generations.

Archaeologists and historians regard Jimmu as mythical or legendary. In Japanese mythology, the Age of the Gods is the period before Jimmu's accession.

It is not certain whether he actually existed or whether he may have been a composite figure. The conventionally accepted names and dates of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of Emperor Kammu (737–806), the 50th sovereign of the Yamato dynasty.

According to the legendary account in the Kojiki, Emperor Jimmu would have been born on 13 February 711 BC (the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar), and died, again according to legend, on 11 March 585 BC (both dates according to the lunisolar traditional Japanese calendar).

According to Shinto belief, Jimmu is regarded as a direct descendant of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. Amaterasu had a son called Ame no Oshihomimi no Mikoto and through him a grandson named Ninigi-no-Mikoto. She sent her grandson to the Japanese islands where he eventually married Konohana-Sakuya-hime. Among their three sons was Hikohohodemi no Mikoto, also called Yamasachi-hiko, who married Toyotama-hime. She was the daughter of Ryūjin, the Japanese sea god. They had a single son called Hikonagisa Takeugaya Fukiaezu no Mikoto. The boy was abandoned by his parents at birth and consequently raised by Tamayori-hime, his mother's younger sister. They eventually married and had a total of four sons. The last of these sons, Kamuyamato Iwarebiko, became Emperor Jimmu.

It is said that, soon after the beginning of Jimmu's reign, a Master of Ceremonies (saishu) was appointed. This office was commonly held by a member of the Nakatomi clan after the eighth century.