Emperor Kōkō

30/07/2022| Eli| 0 Comment| 8:28 pm

Reign: 884-887AD
Born: 830AD
Period: Heian Period
Family: Emperor Ninmyō (father) Minamoto no Muneyuki (grandson)
Order of Succession: Predecessor Emperor Yōzei * Successor Emperor Uda

Table of Contents

Emperor Kōkō

Emperor Kōkō (光孝天皇) was the 58th Emperor of Japan living from 830-871AD and reigning from 884-887AD.¹

Family

Kōkō was the third son of Emperor Ninmyō ¹ and grandfather of the poet Minamoto no Muneyuki.¹

Reign

He was the protégé of Fujiwara no Mototsune and was placed on the throne (aged 54¹) after Mototsune had Emperor Yōzei deposed. Mototsune would then see Kōkō deposed for Emperor Uda.²

Contemporary sources give him the name Emperor of the Ninna Era.¹

Poetry

In total for him we can find 14 poems in Imperial Anthologies, in addition to a personal collection called the Ninna Gyoshū.

One of his poems (No.15) can be found in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu and goes as follows:¹

Japanese text³	Romanized Japanese¹	English translation¹
君がため春の野に出でて若菜つむわが衣手に雪はふりつつ	Kimi ga tame haru no no ni idete wakana tsumu waga koromode ni yuki wa furitsutsu	For you, I came out to the fields to pick the first spring greens. All the while, on my sleeves a light snow falling.

Footnotes

1. MacMillan, P. (2018) ”One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse”. St. Ives: Penguin Classics.
2. Louis Frederic, translated by Kathe Roth (2002) “Japan Encyclopedia”. London: Harvard University Press.
3. Suzuki, H. et al. (1997) ”Genshoku: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu”. Tokyo: Bun’eidō.

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