The longest Royal family in the world (5) 2016/05/03
Female Emperors
There were 8 female Emperors in 125 generations. Two of them comeback to Emperor after once retiring from the position, therefore 8 ladies took the position for 10 generations. All of them were either ex-Empresses or unmarried daughters of Emperors. It shows the Royal family has been keeping severely paternal pedigree. The family did not allow persons to take the position of Emperor without having a paternal pedigree, even though the person had a maternal pedigree.
The first female Emperor was as mentioned before Suiko ( 33rd Emperor) whose father, husband and two half brothers made themselves Emperors.
Kogyoku (35th) was also wife of 34th Emperor and she made comeback as 37th Emperor, Saimei. During her reign, famous Taika reforms happened. It was the battle between Royal family and Soga family to establish modern and centralized nation. After defeating Soga family, the brothers took the reign as Tenchi and Tenmu Emperor.
Jito(41st) was the Emperess of Tenmu and she was said to become Emperor after her husband’ death to buy time and succeed the position to her young son who made himself 42nd Emperor.
Genmyo (43rd) and Gensho(44th) were unmarried daughters of Tenchi and Tenmu respectively. Both were said to protect young prince until his growing up and becoming Shomu Emperor (45th).
Koken( 46th) was a daughter of Shomu. She deeply believed in Buddhism and tried in vain to make Buddhist priest who had nothing to do with a paternal pedigree as Emperor. She finally made herself a priest and comeback as Shotoku(48th) Emperor.
As above mentioned, during 33rd to 48th, 8 generations were occupied with female Emperors. After this period, there were only two female Emperors of 109th and 117th, both during Edo era.
