Fujiwara no Onshi - Fujiwara no Onshi

Japanese: 藤原穏子 - ふじわらのおんし

Year of death: 8.1.4 of Tenryaku (954.2.9)
Year of birth: Ninwa 1 (885)
An empress and empress dowager in the early Heian period. Her father was Fujiwara no Mototsune, the chancellor and grand minister of state, and her mother was the daughter of Prince Hitoshi. She was the empress of Emperor Daigo. She gave birth to Emperors Suzaku and Murakami, Prince Suzaku, and Princess Yasushi. She was born when Mototsune was 50 years old. Her entry into the court of Emperor Daigo did not go smoothly due to opposition from the emperor's grandmother, Empress Dowager Princess Hanshi. Thanks to the machinations of her elder brother Tokihira, she finally entered the court in 899. In 903, at the age of 19, she gave birth to Prince Suzaku (Yasuakira), who became crown prince the following year, but she died in March 923, and her son Prince Yoshiyori was made crown prince. Coincidentally, in July of the same year, at the age of 39, she gave birth to Prince Kanmei, and in 924, Prince Nariakira. When Prince Yoshiyori died at the age of five in the third year of Encho, Prince Kanmei became the crown prince, and ascended to the throne in the eighth year of the same year (Emperor Suzaku). Amidst rumors that the deaths of the crown prince and the crown prince's heir were due to the curse of Sugawara no Michizane, Prince Kanmei was raised without even opening the lattices of the palace until he was three years old. In the ninth year of Tenkei (946), after the deaths of Emperors Uda and Daigo, she forced Emperor Suzaku to abdicate and had her younger brother, Prince Nariakira (Emperor Murakami), ascend the throne. She also directed the creation of Prince Norihira as the crown prince, and as the mother of the nation, she held real power and exerted a strong voice in personnel affairs and government affairs within the court. This is thought to have been a manifestation of the previous tradition of the emperor and empress both governing, and she is considered a pioneer of the Nyoin. She wrote Japan's oldest women's diary, "Daiko Goki." It is written in the same style as the male diary, in kana and in the daily life, and although only a few fragments remain, it is assumed that it was written over a long period of time. <References> Fujiki Kunihiko, "Politics and Systems of the Heian Dynasty," "Empress Dowager Fujiwara Onshi" ("Kadota Bun'ei Collected Works," Vol. 6)

(Sanae Hattori)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：天暦8.1.4(954.2.9)
生年：仁和1(885)
平安前期の皇后,皇太后。父は関白太政大臣藤原基経,母は人康親王の娘。醍醐天皇の皇后。朱雀・村上天皇,崇象親王,康子内親王を生む。基経50歳のときの子。醍醐天皇への入内は,天皇祖母皇太后班子女王の反対で順調ではなかった。兄時平の画策で,やっと昌泰2(899)年に入内。延喜3(903)年,19歳で出産した皇子崇象(保明)が翌年皇太子となったが,延長1(923)年3月死去し,その子慶頼王が皇太孫に立てられた。奇しくも同年7月,39歳で寛明親王を,同4年成明親王を出産。延長3年慶頼王が5歳で没すると寛明親王が皇太子になり,同8年即位した(朱雀天皇)。皇太子や皇太孫の死去が菅原道真の祟りによるとの風評のなか,寛明親王を3歳まで御殿の格子も上げず養育したという。宇多上皇,醍醐天皇没後の天慶9(946)年,朱雀天皇に譲位を迫り,皇太弟成明親王(村上天皇)を即位させ,また憲平親王の立太子にも采配を振るうなど国母として実権を掌握,宮廷内の人事や政務に強大な発言力を発揮した。これは天皇と皇后がともに政治を行う前代の伝統が発揮されたものと考えられ,女院の先駆的存在とされる。わが国最古の女性日記『太后御記』を著す。男性日記と同体裁のかな文,日並日記で,わずかな逸文しか残っていないが,長い期間にわたり執筆されたと推察される。<参考文献>藤木邦彦『平安王朝の政治と制度』,「太皇太后藤原穏子」(『角田文衛著作集』6巻)

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