Emperor Antoku

Antoku (Japanese安 徳 天皇, Antoku - tennō; * December 22, 1178, † April 25, 1185 at Dan -no- ura, Shimonoseki Strait, Japan) was the 81st Tennō of Japan (April 22, 1180-24. March 1185 ). His proper name was Tokihito (言 仁) and he was a grandson of Taira no Kiyomori, the most powerful politicians of the time.

He was two years old the second youngest Tennō who ever ascended the throne of Japan. His mother Tokuko (daughter of Kiyomori ) came only from a samurai family, so that its base was weak at court. Taira no Kiyomori was an excellent politician, the Emperor Go - Shirakawa familiar long time. But the Taira clan was too powerful for the yard and the connection between the Emperor Go - Shirakawa and the Klan cooled more and more from. In contrast, the Klan lost the cultural connection to the other samurai. After the death of Emperor Go - Shirakawa Kiyomori exclaimed the Klan as an enemy of the imperial court, and some samurai in Japan folgtem his reputation. Many of the subsequent battles lost the Klan. Many other Samurai felt that the Klan then be too weak to represent them. Thus, the Taira clan lost his position of power, and when his opponents advanced on Kyōto, the Klan took the child Emperor Antoku from the capital Kyoto to the west. Antoku drowned during the naval battle of Dan -no- ura, when his grandmother rushed with him into the sea to escape capture by the troops of the Minamoto. His mother also tried to take his own life in this way, but was rescued. She became a nun and lived in Ohara, a suburb of Kyoto.

His fate is a popular theme in Japanese literature.

• Born in 1178
• Died in 1185
• Man
• Tennō
• Heian period