Japan’s First Emperor Who Appeared as a Descendant from a God

Emperor JINMU

The 11th of February is the national foundation day of Japan. The definition of foundation differs by nation. While most emerging countries set it as their day of independence, most Japanese don't know how the national foundation day of Japan came about. How did this day become chosen?

Japan used to celebrate this day as "Kigensetsu" before World War 2. After the war, it was abolished as it was considered to be against the spirit of the Constitution. However it was revived in 1966 as "National Foundation Day." February 11 is based on the "Nihonshoki," a history book completed in 720 AD that described the enthroning of the first Emperor, JINMU on that day.

The Meiji Government that won the war against the Shogunate in 1868 was urged to establish an Emperor-orientated nation and admit that all legends described in the oldest history book "Kojiki" (712 AD) and in "Nihonshoki" were true stories and to utilize this in their policies. All Emperors starting from Jinmu up to the present Emperor, were said to be descendants in an unbroken line of a god called "Amaterasu-Ohmikami" and was thus deified by the people.

The Emperor Jinmu did not exist!
Strangely, "Nihonshoki" named two Emperors as "the first Emperor who governed the nation." One of them was the Emperor Jinmu and the other was the 10th Emperor SUJIN. The book describes Emperor Jinmu in indirect form as "it is told that Jinmu was the first Emperor who governed the nation." Emperor Sujin is described as "creating the family register system of people and allocated duties. Things were abundant and the country was peaceful. So people admired the Emperor and called him 'the first Emperor who governed the nation.'"

What kind of figure was the Emperor Jinmu? To our surprise, it is an established theory among academics that the Emperor Jinmu did not actually exist. Not only Jinmu, but also the other Emperors up to the ninth were regarded as ficticious as well. The 10th Emperor Sujin is believed to be the first actual Emperor.

The famous story has it that when the Emperor Jinmu was based in Kyushu, he explored the Yamato (Kinki) region, which later became the center of Japan. The Emperor Jinmu was viewed as a shadow of the Emperor Sujin and his successors who started the Yamato Court. It is said that Emperor Jinmu passed away at the age of 127. Most of the Emperors of that time were estimated to have lived longer than 100 years. As the year of Jinmu's enthronement was created in the lucky year based on the Chinese calendar, it seems as if the life spans of these fictitious Emperors were used for the adjustment.

Does the Nihonshoki represent the change of ruler?
Why did they do such a thing? In answer to this question, a very persuasive view is that the Emperor Sujin came from the Korean peninsular. This view also maintains that the Emperor's family, who came to Japan gradually, put the influential powers of Yamato under their control and became the rulers as time went by and they needed to justify their status. Considering the Japanese characteristic that makes people repeat past practices, it was the most effective way to be a representative of the god as the Emperor's family's blood is connected to the god. In the above-mentioned two books, there are reliable sections that described the later era and the mythical period, which are now believed to have been fiction created by the ruler.

There is also a myth that the sovereign was a descendant of a god in Korea. After excavating the grave of high officials in Japan such as Takamatsu-zuka, it was gradually discovered that those buried were strongly related to people living on the Korean Peninsular. If investigating the graves of the Emperor's ancestors was permitted, the ancient history of Japan would become clearer. However, this is not permitted as it would breach the privacy of the Emperor's family.

It is still taboo to publicly discuss the possibility that the ancestors of the Emperor's family may have come from the Korean Peninsular. Even at present the Emperor family's is sacred and untouchable and the name of the Emperor Jinmu will contentiously remain as Japan's first Emperor.

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