著者

神谷 正昌

出版者

公益財団法人史学会

雑誌

史學雜誌 (ISSN:00182478)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.111, no.11, pp.40-57, 151-150, 2002-11-20

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The jowa Era Accession Dispute (Jowa-no-Hen承和の変) of AD 842 and the Oten palace Gate Arson Incident (Otenmon-no-Hen応天門の変) of 886 have benn dealt with in the research literature to date as events within the process by which the Fujiwara family concentrated its power during the early Heian period.In this paper, the author considers these two events from a new viewpoint, the idea of kingship.After the Kanm 桓武 imperial line obtained the right of accession to the throne, there was no fixed principle about the line of succession ; rather, the throne was left open to whomever was the most pwerful prince.Also, after Fujiwara Kusuko's unsuccessful coup d'etat attempt in 809, the retired emperors (Daijo-Tenno太上天皇) lost their imperial authority, but continued to influence thier emperor son as their guardians.This state of affairs brought about opposition and factionalism among the Heian aristocracy over the problem of unifying the Saga 嵯峨 -Minmei 仁明 and Junna 淳名 -Tsunesada 恒貞 imperial lines.It was the Jowa Incident that brought the problems and contradictions about kingship during the period to a head.In the aftermath of the incident, the Saga-Ninmei line was legitimized and a principle of direct father to son accession was establishied, bringing about the existence of child emperors.In addition, the influence of the retired emperors was further weakened, as the positon of Daijo-Tenno was left vacant and newly appointed Head Minister of State Fujiwara-no-Yoshifusa 良房 assumed the role of imoerial guardian.In contrast, the Otenmon Incident has been seen as unrelated to the problem of imperial succession.But, in those days, it was considered as a combination of strange happenings, catastrophe and military clashes, as well as a crisis caused by in-fighting among the court aristocrasy.This incident brought to the forefront problems about kingship that had existed since the Jowa Incident : namely, the existence of child emperors and the absence of Daiojo-Tenno.Fujiwara-no-Yoshifusa was still Head Minister of State during the Otenmon Incident, but he was merely a guardian of the emperor and held no actural political power as such.It was by making himself the pffical imoerial regent(Sessho摂政) thar Yoshifusa was able to concentrate power and overcome the crisis.While such a maneuver was supposed to be only a temporary measure, as the first Regent, who was also the maternal grandfather of the emperor, Yoshifusa became the model for the later Fujiwara Regency.