Fujiwara no Teishi (藤原呈子, also read Fujiwara no Shimeko; 1131 – October 23, 1176) was a Japanese

noblewoman A noblewoman is a female member of the nobility. Noblewomen form a disparate group, which has evolved over time. Ennoblement of women has traditionally been a rare occurrence; the majority of noblewomen were linked to the nobility by either their ...

('' nyoin'') of the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. She was a consort to

Emperor Konoe was the 76th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 近衛天皇 (76)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Konoe's reign spanned the years from 1142 through 1155. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chr ...

but did not bear him any children and entered religious orders in her mid twenties. Her

dharma name A Dharma name is a new name acquired during both lay and monastic Buddhist initiation rituals in Mahayana Buddhism and Pabbajjā, monastic ordination in Theravada Buddhism (where it is more proper to call it Dhamma or Sangha name). The name is ...

was Shōjōkan (清浄観) and her '' ingō'' was Kujō-in (九条院).

Biography

Fujiwara no Teishi was born in 1131 to Fujiwara no Koremichi and a daughter of Fujiwara no Akitaka. She became the adopted daughter of the '' kanpaku'' Fujiwara no Tadamichi. Like many Japanese noblewomen of the pre-modern era, the correct reading of her given name is uncertain, and the readings ''Teishi'' and ''Shimeko'' are speculative '' on'' and '' kun'' readings, respectively. In Kyūan 6 (1150) she entered the service of

, initially as a '' nyōgo'' and later become

empress The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

(''chūgū''). This was against the backdrop of between Tadamichi and his brother Yorinaga regarding whose daughter would be the mother of the future emperor. Unfortunately, she did not provide the emperor with an heir, and in Kyūju 2 (1155) she entered religious orders due to illness, taking the

''Shōjōkan''. In Hōgen 1 (1156) she became ' and in Hōgen 3 (1158) '. In Nin'an 3 (1168) she became a '' nyoin'', with ''Kujō-in'' as her '' ingō''. She died in 1176.

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Works cited

* Fujiwara clan Japanese empresses consort Japanese Buddhist nuns 12th-century Buddhist nuns 1131 births 1176 deaths Nyoin 12th-century Japanese women {{Japan-royal-stub