Jingū

Empress

• Born: 169
• Birthplace: Japan
• Died: 269
• Place of death: Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

Japanese empress (traditionally r. 200-269 c.e.)

According to tradition, Jingū executed a prophecy of the sun goddess Amaterasu and conquered the three kingdoms of Korea.

Area of Achievement War and conquest, government and politics

Early Life

Jingū (jihn-gew) is the name given to Okinaga Tarashi Hime no Mikoto after her death, by which she is commonly known. Most of her story comprises legendary events. According to Japanese tradition, Jingū was the great-granddaughter of the legendary ninth emperor, Kaika. Her father was Prince Okinaga no Sukune and her mother Princess Katsuragi (or Katsuraki) no Takanuka. As a young girl, Jingū was known for her intelligence, shrewdness, and great beauty. She grew up in the society of the Imperial court around the present cities of Ōsaka and Nara in central Japan.

Most scholars believe that Jingū is still a legendary, rather than a real, figure of Japanese history. The traditional dates for her amazingly long life of one hundred years have been shown to be fictitious. To claim ancient outside verification of the facts of their own history, thus making them more believable, the early Japanese historians of the eighth century wanted to identify Jingū with Queen Himiko. Himiko, an ancient shaman-ruler of Japan, is mentioned in written Chinese sources of the third century that are almost five hundred years older than the first written history of Jingū’s reign. Indeed, like a shaman-priestess, Jingū is shown to often rely on her close contact with the gods when executing her rule. However, as later events of Jingū’s life show, she cannot have lived when Himiko flourished, between 220 and 250 c.e.; the two must have been different persons. Modern scholars therefore believe that if Jingū was real, she lived about 120 years later than the traditional Japanese dates of her life and flourished in the fourth century c.e.

At age twenty-four, in February, 193 (according to legend), Jingū married the (likely legendary) emperor Chūai (also Chiuai) and was given the official rank of empress. Chūai, at age forty-four, already had two children from his first consort and later would have another son with a consort he took after his marriage to Jingū.

In the year of their marriage, Chūai decided to undertake a naval expedition to subjugate the rebellious Kumaso people of Kyūshū. From central Japan, Empress Jingū followed in a ship of her own. She joined Chūai at Kashihi palace on Kyūshū. In October, the emperor held a war council with his ministers. Now, according to legend, Jingū became possessed by the spirit of a god. Through Jingū as a medium, the god prophesied that Chūai should cease pursuing the Kumaso and direct his military energy toward Korea, which he would conquer. Chūai refused to believe this. Through Jingū’s mouth, the angry god promised an early death for the emperor and that the boy child just conceived by Jingū would inherit Korea.

Japanese historical accounts differ on the year of the council and the death of the emperor. The Kojiki (712; English translation, 1882) has Chūai die suddenly on the day of the curse. The Nihon Shoki (720; Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to a.d. 697, 1896) gives his death seven years later, either from an illness or in battle against the Kumaso. Scholars who believe in Chūai’s existence place his death in 362 c.e.

Life’s Work

After the death of the emperor, traditionally in March, 200 c.e., Jingū met with her imperial ministers and decided to keep his demise a secret, in order to avoid popular unrest. Prime Minister Takechi no Sukune gave the corpse a temporary burial. To restore order, Jingū commanded performance of a great exorcism.

One month later, Jingū performed a high ritual to learn the identity of the god who had prophesied to Chūai. After seven days, Jingū learned that it was the sun goddess Amaterasu, in addition to a variety of other deities. Now Jingū ordered their proper worship and sent a general to the Kumaso, who quickly submitted. Dressed as a male warrior, Jingū killed Hashirō Kumawashi, a legendary figure whose wings made him almost invincible. She also ordered the execution of a hideous earth spider princess before conducting various rituals for success against the Koreans.

In May, Jingū declared to her ministers that she would lead the Japanese army herself, dressed as a man. In October, her army could assemble—only after she built a new shrine and made offerings. When a scout sighted the mountains of Korea, Jingū addressed her troops in male attire and admonished them to keep discipline, fight the enemy, and show mercy to those who surrendered. A god sent two spirits to protect her. In order to delay the birth of her baby until her return to Japan, Jingū took one or two stones, either to insert into her vagina (Nihon Shoki) or to attach to her skirt (Kojiki).

In November, Jingū’s fleet sailed from the island of Tsushima in the northeast of Japan to the coast of Korea, to conquer the kingdom of Silla. Silla occupied the eastern coast of Korea, including today’s city of Pusan. Silla’s king was so awed by the Japanese fleet that he surrendered his whole country. Bowing to the imperial ship of Jingū, Silla’s king promised eternal loyalty and regular tribute in goods and slaves. When a Japanese soldier proposed to kill him, Jingū reminded her troops to show mercy to those who submitted and made the king her vassal.

The Nihon Shoki gives the name of Silla’s king as Phasa Mikeun and states that he gave Jingū his son Micheul Kwichi Phachin Kanki as a hostage. Ancient Korean sources reveal that Phasa reigned Silla from 80 to 112, and Silla Prince Misăheun, the Prince Micheul of the Japanese account, was sent as hostage to Japan in 402. Clearly, Japan’s historians compiled events that could be almost three hundred years apart and patched them together to form one coherent narrative, flattering to their nation. Scholars tend to agree that Japan was active in Korea in the fourth century c.e. and that many events ascribed to Jingū’s reign are corroborated, although they generally happened 120 years later than Japanese history documents.

After taking the records and maps outlining the possessions and lands of Silla, Jingū symbolically subjugated the country by placing her spear at the gates of Silla’s palace. Realizing that the Japanese forces were too strong for them, the kings of Paekche in western Korea (around today’s Seoul) and of Koguryo or Kokuryo in North Korea submitted to Jingū’s rule and promised tribute. Asserting her rule over Korea, Jingū returned to Japan. In the late fourth century c.e., in Kyūshū, she gave birth to her son Homuda, the future emperor Ōjin Tennō.

In spring of 201, Jingū faced a rebellion by the two princes born to Chūai’s first consort. They did not want to obey her son and gathered an army. They and Jingū prepared two competing burial sites for the emperor’s corpse, which remained in Jingū’s possession. When one of the princes was killed by a wild boar, the other retreated east. To confuse her enemies, Jingū sent Takechi with her son separately to her capital. Reunited with Takechi, she ordered an attack. Takechi pretended to make peace. When the enemy rendered their bows inoperable, Takechi’s troops fell on them. Defeated, the last prince drowned himself in Lake Biwa, east of Kyoto.

With her rule cemented, Jingū accepted the title of grand empress in 201. She was considered a regent for her son Homuda (Ōjin Tennō), rather than a reigning empress. However, she ruled until her death, long after Homuda reached maturity. In 202, the emperor was buried in his final tomb, and in 203 Homuda was designated next emperor. Jingū built the palace of Wakazakura, where she would govern for the rest of her life. There, she also enjoyed banquets and drinking games with her son and prime minister Takechi.

In 205 Silla’s Prince Micheul escaped and went home, having tricked the empress into allowing him to leave. Enraged, Jingū’s general burned Silla’s envoys to death, conquered a Korean castle, and returned with captives to be settled in Japan.

For the years 239-243, the Nihon Shoki copies Chinese sources telling of the reign of Queen Himiko and (anachronistically) ascribes them to Jingū’s rule. In 246 Jingū sent an emissary to the Japanese enclave of Mimana (Kaya in Korean) in South Korea, wedged between the two kingdoms of Paekche in the west and Silla in the east. The king of Paekche again sent valuable tribute.

In 247, Silla robbed Paekche of their tribute and passed it off as their own. Jingū sent Chikuma Nagahiko to Korea. Allied with Paekche, Nagahiko’s forces defeated Silla in 249 and Jingū enlarged Paekche at the expense of their enemy in 250. In 252, in traditional chronology, Paekche’s grateful king sent Jingū gifts, among them a seven-branched sword. This sword was actually identified resting in Isonokami Shrine in Nara in 1873. Made in 369 in reality, it was given by the king of Paekche to the Japanese. Its existence proves the authenticity of at least some of the events ascribed to Jingū’s reign.

In 262, Silla failed to sent tribute. Jingū sent General Sachihiko to punish Silla. Sachihiko was seduced by two beautiful Silla women and attacked another kingdom instead. Enraged, Jingū sent another general to defeat Silla, and Sachihiko committed suicide. According to tradition, Jingū died in Wakazakura Palace in May, 269. She was buried six months later.

Significance

The reign of Jingū marks the point where Japanese historical records leave the realm of legend. From then on, their events can actually be corroborated by histories written in other countries such as China and Korea, and by archaeological evidence. The dates given in Japanese accounts are predated, but some events clearly took place. Scholars notice how magic and ritual become less important later in Jingū’s regency, when practical politics and a cheerful court life dominate.

To document Jingū’s conquest, or at least involvement, in Korea, two archaeological artifacts are of crucial relevance. First, there is the sword presented to Jingū by Paekche. Second, in 1884 a Japanese officer discovered an inscribed stele on the banks of the Yalu River separating North Korea from China, which commemorates a war of Japan and Paekche against Koguryo in North Korea, ending with the utter defeat of the Japanese in 391. This proves Japanese military involvement in the region.

By 2003, scholars were still hotly divided over the true nature of Japanese-Korean relations in the fourth century, now agreed on as the time of Jingū’s life. Japanese scholars believe that during this time, Japan established a colony at Mimana, while the Koreans dispute the existence of this state they call Kaya. While most Japanese read the inscription on the Paekche sword to mean that the king submitted to Jingū, many Korean scholars read it to mean a gift to the inferior Japanese. Similarly, the inscription of the stele on the Yalu River is disputed, and its location in Communist North Korea prevents independent scholarly access to it.

Even if Jingū was not a single historical person, there is historical evidence for many of the events described in her reign. She may well be a composite character created around a real person. Jingū’s reliance on her spiritual powers early in her life corresponds to the existence of women shamans in Japan and is in line with the continuous importance placed on ritual by Japanese emperors.

Bibliography

Aston, W. G., trans. Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan. 1896. Reprint. Rutland, Vt.: C. E. Tuttle, 1972. English translation of the Nihon Shoki (or Shogi) that contains one of the two original accounts of Jingū’s life.

Brown, Delmer M., ed. Ancient Japan. Vol. 1 in The Cambridge History of Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Chapter 2, “The Yamato Kingdom,” contains an excellent historical account of the time of Jingū’s life and discusses many of the controversies surrounding her presumed person and rule.

Farris, William Wayne. Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. Chapters 1 and 2 discuss Japan’s historical relationship with Korea in the time of Jingū’s rule. Excellent scholarly discussion of the textual and archaeological evidence for the events of her regency. Illustrated; includes bibliography and index.

Philippi, Donald L., trans. Kojiki. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969. An English translation of the first Japanese account of Jingū’s life. Philippi’s unique transcription of ancient Japanese names alters their English spelling.

Tarō, Sakamoto. The Six National Histories of Japan. Translated by John S. Brownlee. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1991. Translation of the 1970 Japanese study of the oldest Japanese histories. Chapter 2, on the Nihon Shoki, contains an excellent discussion on the source materials used by Japanese historians. Pages 61-63 deal directly with accounts of Jingū. Includes appendix, bibliography, and index.

Related articles in Great Lives from History: The Ancient World

3d century b.c.e. (traditionally 660 b.c.e.), Jimmu Tennō Becomes the First Emperor of Japan; c. mid-3d century c.e., Himiko Rules the Yamatai; c. 300-710 c.e., Kofun Period Unifies Japan; 390-430 c.e. or later, traditionally r. 270-310, Ōjin Tennō, First Historical Emperor of Japan, Reigns.