<Articles>The Status of Shinseiwain in the Imperial Court During the Bunsei-Kōka Era, Focusing on the Relationship with the Emperor Ninkō

This paper examines the status of Shinseiwain 新清和院(the legitimate consort of Retired Emperor Kōkaku 光格上皇) at the imperial court during the Bunsei-Kōka era from the perspective of the succession to the throne during that period and the issue of the mother-child relationship between Shinseiwain and Emperor Ninkō 仁孝天皇. Kajūji Tadako 勧修寺婧子, retired Emperor Kōkaku's concubine, was the birth mother of Emperor Ninkō, however she was officially denied the status of mother at the imperial court, and Shinseiwain was treated as his “real mother” (jitsubo 実母). At the imperial court during the Bunsei era, Retired Emperor Kōkaku and Emperor Ninkō had initially decided the succession to the throne would either by Prince Atenomiya 高貴宮, the son of Shinseiwain, or to Prince Osanomiya 鍠宮, the son of Emperor Ninkō's legitimate consort. However, due to the successive early deaths of the princes, these plans were not realized. Later, in the Tenpō era, Prince Hironomiya 煕宮, the son of Ōgimachi Naoko 正親町雅子(Emperor Ninkō's concubine), was appointed Crown Prince. Toward the end of the Tenpō era, Emperor Ninkō expressed his intention to abdicate to Hironomiya, but the fact that Emperor Ninkō's abdication would force Shinseiwain to move her residence was perceived by imperial court officials to be an act of filial disloyalty to his “real mother, ” and the Emperor's abdication announcement was effectively suspended. Emperor Ninkō had previously begun to promote his own mother, Kajūji Tadako, to a higher court rank. Since the mid-eighteenth century, an emperor's birth mother who had been a lady-in-waiting in the imperial palace was denied the status of imperial mother, and in addition, Tadako's promotion had been stymied during the lifetime of the Retired Emperor Kōkaku because of her involvement in the incident of a curse by ladies-in-waiting at the court during the Bunka era. However, after the death of Retired Emperor Kōkaku, Emperor Ninkō was able to realize the promotion of Tadako to second grade of the third rank (jusanmi 従三位) and the conferral of the honorary rank equivalent to that of the three empresses (jugō 准后), as well as to award the post of Minister of the Interior (Naidaijin 内大臣) to his maternal grandfather Kajūji Tsunehaya 勧修寺経逸 through the display of official documents indicating that this was the intention of Shinseiwain. One of the reasons why Emperor Ninkō's abdication was perceived as being unfilial toward his “real mother, ” Shinseiwain, and thus made the abdication itself impossible, was the result of his use of Shinseiwain's intent to overturn the principle behind the treatment of an emperor's birth mother and maternal relatives, which had been practiced since the Hōreki era, and his obtaining a higher official court rank for his own birth mother. Shinseiwain was the only daughter of Emperor Gomomozono 後桃園天皇, and she was promoted from the empress (chūgū 中宮) to the empress dowager (kōtaigō 皇太后), an unprecedented promotion in the early modern era. Although Shinseiwain was unable to have her own son succeed to the throne, her lineage and rank gave her tremendous influence within the imperial family, especially within the inner palace (okumuki 奥向), which also influenced the delay in the abdication of Emperor Ninkō. Ultimately, Emperor Ninkō died during the Kōka era while still on the throne and without being able to abdicate. It can be said that the delay in the abdication in the late stage of the early modern period was closely related to the succession to the throne and the problems within the emperor's family concerning his birth mother and his maternal relatives. In dealing with the problems of the succession to the throne in the first half of the nineteenth century, and the emperor's relationship with his mother and child, Shinseiwain had a status unlike other Nyoin (女院); as the nexus of the traditional imperial lineage in the early modern period, she was a person who could guarantee legitimacy and transcend the emperor's will.