Emperor Yūryaku

Emperor Yūryaku (雄略天皇, Yūryaku-tennō) was the 21st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.

Yūryaku is remembered as a patron of sericulture.

No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign, but he is conventionally considered to have reigned from 456–479.

Legendary narrative

Yūryaku was a 5th-century monarch. The reign of Emperor Kimmei (509?–571 AD), the 29th emperor, is the first for which contemporary historiography is able to assign verifiable dates; however, the conventionally accepted names and dates of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of Emperor Kammu (737–806), the 50th sovereign of the Yamato dynasty.

According to the Kojiki, this emperor is said to have ruled from the Thirteenth Day of the Eleventh Month of 456 (Heishin) until his death on the Seventh Day of the Eight Month of 479 (Kibi).

According to Kojiki and Nihonshoki, Yūryaku was named Prince Ōhatsuse Wakatake (大泊瀬 幼武) at birth. Swords unearthed from some kofun tombs, such as the Inariyama Sword pictured at right, indicate his name was Waka Takeru (Ōkimi). Yūryaku is a name posthumously assigned to him by a much later era. He was the fifth and youngest son of Emperor Ingyō. After his elder brother Emperor Ankō was murdered, he won the struggle against his other brothers and became the new emperor. His title at his own lifetime was certainly not tennō, but presumably Ōkimi and/or Sumeramikoto (治天下大王 - amenoshita shiroshimesu ōkimi, or sumera no mikoto, Great King who rules all under heaven) and/or king of Yamato (ヤマト大王/大君 - yamato ōkimi, Great King of Yamato). He had three wives (including his consort Kusahahatahi). His successor, Prince Shiraka (Emperor Seinei), was his son by his wife Kazuraki no Karahime.