Princess Inoe or ''Inoue'' (717–775) was the

empress consort A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king, and usually shares her spouse's social rank and status. She holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles and may be crowned and anointed, but historically she does not formally ...

Emperor Kōnin was the 49th emperor of Japan, Emperor Kōnin, Tahara no Higashi Imperial Mausoleum, Imperial Household Agency according to the traditional order of succession. Kōnin's reign lasted from 770 to 781. Traditional narrative The personal name of ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. She was deposed in 772, accused of witchcraft.

Biography

Inoue was the daughter of

Emperor Shōmu was the 45th Emperor of Japan, emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 聖武天皇 (45)/ref> according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Shōmu's reign spanned the years 724 through 749, duri ...

, who reigned from March 3, 724 until August 19, 749.

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family, and the keeping of the Privy Seal of Japan, Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century ...

(''Kunaichō'')
聖武天皇 (45)
/ref> Her mother was Agatainukai no Hirotoji (県犬養広刀自), daughter of Agatainukai no Morokoshi. She was the sister of Prince Asaka (d. 744) and Princess Fuwa, and the half sister of

Empress Kōken Empress Kōken (born Abe, known as Empress Shōtoku during her second reign; 718–770) was the 46th and 48th monarch of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. She was born to Crown Prince Obito (the future Emperor Shōmu) and ...

. Princess Inoue married her relative, the future Emperor Kōnin, thereby uniting the ''Tenmu'' and ''Tenji'' line of the Imperial House. During the last reign of her half sister Empress Kōken (764-770), Inoue and her sister Fuwa where both involved in political plots with ambition to the succession of the throne: Fuwa wished to place her husband and sons on the throne, while Inoue wished to have her son Osabe appointed Crown Prince. In 770, Inoue's spouse succeeded her half sister to the throne due to a fabricated will, after which Inoue was named Empress and her son named Crown Prince. In 772, Empress Inoue was suddenly deposed and arrested and accused for having used curses and black magic to promote her son to the throne, and shortly afterward, her son Prince Osabe was also arrested for complicity. Both Inoue and Osabe was stripped of their titles, banished and imprisoned in house arrest, for having performed curses and practising black magic. In 775, Inoue and her son both died in custody on the same day, presumably poisoned. When the Emperor fell ill in 777, Inoue was believed to haunt him, and consequently, she was reinterred in an Imperial grave and rehabilitated; in 800, she was given back her title of Empress posthumously.

Issue

*Imperial Prince Osabe (d. 775), the Crown Prince *

Princess Sakahito was a Japanese princess, born a daughter of Emperor Kōnin. Her mother was reported to be Princess Inoue—a daughter of Emperor Shōmu, but there is another theory that her mother was Takano no Niigasa. After her father was enthroned as the e ...

Goethem, Ellen Van (2008)
''Nagaoka: Japan's forgotten capital''

Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers () is a Dutch international academic publisher of books, academic journals, and Bibliographic database, databases founded in 1683, making it one of the oldest publishing houses in the Netherlands. Founded in the South ...

via

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married her elder half-brother Yamabe, later Kanmu after the deaths of her mother and Osabe in 775.

Legacy

Around 800, during the reign of Kammu, former Prince Yamabe, a shrine was built for her in Yamashiro Province (now

Gojō, Nara is a city located in Nara Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 26,998 in 13363 households, and a population density of 92 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Located in western Nara Prefecture, the ...

), named Goryō Jinja. Princess Inoe is also venerated at its subsideries.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inoe Japanese empresses consort 717 births 775 deaths 8th-century Japanese women 8th-century Japanese people Saiō Deified Japanese women Daughters of Japanese emperors 8th-century empresses consort