Legendary Narrative
Modern scholars have come to question the existence of at least the first nine emperors; and Kaika's son Emperor Sujin is the first many agree might have actually existed, in third or fourth century. The name Kaika-tennō was assigned to him posthumously by later generations.
Kaika is regarded by historians as a "legendary emperor" and there is a paucity of information about him. There is insufficient material available for further verification and study. The reign of Emperor Kimmei (509–571), the 29th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, is the first for which contemporary historiography are able to assign verifiable dates; however, 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.
In Kojiki and Nihonshoki, only his name and genealogy were recorded. The Japanese have traditionally accepted this sovereign's historical existence, and an Imperial misasagi or tomb for Kaika is currently maintained; however, no extant contemporary records have been discovered which confirm a view that this historical figure actually reigned. He was the eighth of eight emperors without specific legends associated with them, also known as the "eight undocumented monarchs" (欠史八代,, Kesshi-hachidai?).
Jien records that Kaika was the second son of Emperor Kōgen, and that he ruled from the palace of Isakawa-no-miya at Kasuga in what will come to be known as Yamato province.
Kaika is a posthumous name. It is undisputed that this identification is Chinese in form and Buddhist in implication, which suggests that the name must have been regularized centuries after the lifetime ascribed to Kaika, possibly during the time in which legends about the origins of the Yamato dynasty were compiled as the chronicles known today as the Kojiki.
The actual site of Kaika's grave is not known. This emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) at Nara.
The Imperial Household Agency designates this location as Kaika's mausoleum. It is formally named Kasuga no Izakawa no sak no e no misasagi.
Read more about this topic: Emperor Kaika
Famous quotes containing the words legendary and/or narrative:
“By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence.... I can sympathize with the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)