Changing the Calendar: Royal Political Theology and the Suppression of the Tachibana Naramaro Conspiracy of 757

In the aftermath of the suppression of the Tachibana Naramaro conspiracy of 757, the Empress Koken ("Kōken/Shōtoku Tennō") issued two edicts articulating the royal political theology of the time. The first edict was a senmyō, inscribed in the Shoku Nihongi in Old Japanese; the second was a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bender, Ross (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
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Published: Nanzan Institute [2010]
In: Japanese journal of religious studies
Year: 2010, Volume: 37, Issue: 2, Pages: 223-245
Further subjects:B Emperors
B Empresses
B Omens
B Buddhism
B Deities
B Religious Studies
B Monarchy
B Shintoism
B Divinity
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:In the aftermath of the suppression of the Tachibana Naramaro conspiracy of 757, the Empress Koken ("Kōken/Shōtoku Tennō") issued two edicts articulating the royal political theology of the time. The first edict was a senmyō, inscribed in the Shoku Nihongi in Old Japanese; the second was a choku in Chinese. A miraculous omen, the apparition of a silkworm cocoon with a message woven into its surface, was interpreted as the occasion for a change in the calendrical era name, or nengō. This article argues that the imperial edicts express a coherent ideology combining ideas from a cultic matrix in which may be discerned proto-Shinto, Buddhist, and Confucian elements.
Contains:Enthalten in: Japanese journal of religious studies