Japanese empresses
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Japan, Empress may refer to either female imperial ruler (女性天皇 josei tennō?) or empress consort (皇后 kōgō?).
[edit] Ruling Empresses
There were eight female imperial reigns (six female emperors including two who reigned twice) in Japan's early history between 593 and 770, and two more in the early modern period (Edo era). After many centuries, female reigns came to be officially prohibited only when the Imperial Household Law was issued in 1889 alongside the new Meiji Constitution.
- Empress Jingū 206-209 - mythical; removed from the list of Emperors in the 19th century
- Empress Suiko 593-628 - first ruling empress
- Empress Kogyoku 642-645 - formerly Princess Takara (Empress Consort of Kotoku)
- Empress Saimei 655-661 (same person as Kogyoku)
- Empress Jitō 690-697
- Empress Gemmei 707-715
- Empress Genshō 715-724 - formerly Princess Hidaka
- Empress Kōken 749-758
- Empress Shōtoku 764-770 (same person as Koken)
- Empress Meishō 1629-1643
- Empress Go-Sakuramachi 1762-1771 - last empress
[edit] Empress Consorts
A partial list of non-ruling empresses of Japan:
- Empress Michiko of Japan
- Empress Kōjun
- Empress Teimei
- Empress Shōken
- Empress Dowager Kaimei
- Fujiwara no Otomuro or Empress Fujiwara no Junshi
- Empress consort Anshi
- Empress Chōshi
- Empress Dowager Fujiwara no Yoshiko
- Empress (chūgū) Imperial Princess Akiko
- Empress (kōgō) Fujiwara no Hiroko
- Empress (kōgō) Fujiwara no Kanko
