Question for Japanese specialists again: When was it okay to fight the Emperor?

Looking at history, there seems to be a fairly great number of civil wars or disturbances in Japan that pitted various forces against the reigning Emperor, ruling or not. My question is, if the Emperor was seen as sacred and holy, how was this acceptable?

For roughly chronological order, there are:

Jinshin Disturbance (672): The Emperor, called both Emperor Kobun and Prince Otomo, and his forces are defeated by the forces of the new Emperor, called Emperor Temmu or Prince Oama.

Kusuko Disturbance (810): Retired Emperor Heizei's attempt to regain power, with the assistance of his wife Fujiwara no Kusuko, fails when government forces loyal to Emperor Saga defeat the rebels.

Hogen Disturbance (1156): Emperor Go-Shirakawa's forces defeated Retired Emperor Sutoku's forces.

Heiji Disturbance (1159-1160): Emperor Nijo and Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa are kidnapped by Minamoto forces. After their escape, fighting between the Minamoto and Taira begins.

Genpei War (1180-1185): Emperor Antoku dies after the Taira-Minamoto battle at Dan-no-ura. Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa is allied with the Minamoto, Emperor Antoku is a puppet for the Taira.

Jokyu Disturbance (1221): Retired Emperor Go-Toba defeated by forces loyal to the Kamakura Shogunate.

Genko War (1331-1333): Forces loyal to Emperor Go-Daigo defeat forces of the Kamakura Shogunate. Part of the Kenmu Restoration, which lasts

Nanboku-cho Wars (1336-1392): Two imperial lines, one belonging to Go-Daigo and one controlled by the Ashikaga Shogunate, were fighting.

Boshin War (1868-1869): This one's not so surprising, since the Tokugawa claimed to be fighting the forces of Choshu and Satsuma to help out the Emperor.

For these, it's pretty clear that the Emperors were favoring one side over the other. It's one thing to say that the average peasant soldier didn't know what or who he was fighting for. On the other hand, some seem a lot less plausible. For example, it's hard to imagine that soldiers or courtiers didn't know who they were kidnapping regarding the Heiji Disturbance. Or that the participants at Dan-no-ura didn't know that the Emperor was at the battlefield supporting one side. With the Hogen Disturbance or the Jokyu Disturbance, the side with the Retired Emperor lost, so it seems that being the incumbent is more important. On the other hand, it still asks the question of why somebody would fight the reigning Emperor.

Point is, throughout Japanese history, people seem to have few qualms about taking up arms against either ruling or former Emperors. Is it because people didn't believe the part about the Emperors descending from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, didn't care, or didn't know? Or was the institution of the sacred monarch not held very highly during the classical and feudal periods, and only gained credence during the modern period, so people were willing to oppose and fight the Emperors?
 
I can help answer the first one, as I'm deep into a book about the Tenmu Dynasty.

In 645 the "emperor" didn't quite exist. I believe it wasn't until Tenmu's consort Jito (686-697) that Japan's rulers began to style themselves as tenno (emperor) as opposed to okimi (sun kings) in foreign correspondence. This was part and parcel of the taika reforms to build the ritsuryo state.

Another clue is the histories written at the time. The kojiki for instance doesn't depict Amaterasu as the ultimate source of the royal line. She's also not necessarily female! Nihon Shoki written by order of Tenmu's line, claims Tenji himself had only come to power by assassinating the leadership of Soga clan who was plotting to take over the throne from the Yamato line. Nihon Shoki downplays Tenji and glorifies Tenmu as you might expect and attributes military defeats inflicted by Tang and Silla to Tenji. The whole thing is an exercise in legitimizing the transition. Otomo isn't even considered a "real" emperor in these histories. He wasn't inserted into the official records until the Meiji era IIRC.

In this case it was another person with the proper blood that was fighting to be emperor and during the Tenmu dynasty itself there was countless attempts to bump off potential rivals or get rid of successors by various attempts. The book I referenced earlier claims that there were only two constants in the Japanese monarchy. 1. No lasting rule of succession until 1889 and 2. Adopting a successor is banned. With such a shaky basis for succession, it's no surprise that there were constant struggles and if you see everyone in the family fighting for the throne in a mafia-like civil war, then you obviously are going to have second thoughts about them being "sacred."
 
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I can help answer the first one, as I'm deep into a book about the Tenmu Dynasty.

In 645 the "emperor" didn't quite exist. I believe it wasn't until Tenmu's consort Jito (686-697) that Japan's rulers began to style themselves as tenno (emperor) as opposed to okimi (sun kings) in foreign correspondence. This was part and parcel of the taika reforms to build the ritsuryo state.

Okimi probably meant Great King. It's written with the characters for it, at least (大王, or dawang in Mandarin). I know the title of tenno might not have been around at this time, but the Japanese court already addressed itself as tianzi to the Sui court, so I think they considered themselves emperors of a sort.

Another clue is the histories written at the time. The kojiki for instance doesn't depict Amaterasu as the ultimate source of the royal line. She's also not necessarily female! Nihon Shoki written by order of Tenmu's line, claims Tenji himself had only come to power by assassinating the leadership of Soga clan who was plotting to take over the throne from the Yamato line. Nihon Shoki downplays Tenji and glorifies Tenmu as you might expect and attributes military defeats inflicted by Tang and Silla to Tenji. The whole thing is an exercise in legitimizing the transition. Otomo isn't even considered a "real" emperor in these histories. He wasn't inserted into the official records until the Meiji era IIRC.

In this case it was another person with the proper blood that was fighting to be emperor and during the Tenmu dynasty itself there was countless attempts to bump off potential rivals or get rid of successors by various attempts. The book I referenced earlier claims that there were only two constants in the Japanese monarchy. 1. No lasting rule of succession until 1889 and 2. Adopting a successor is banned. With such a shaky basis for succession, it's no surprise that there were constant struggles and if you see everyone in the family fighting for the throne in a mafia-like civil war, then you obviously are going to have second thoughts about them being "sacred."

That works, I've heard how the goddess Amaterasu was wholly manufactured for the support of the court during Emperor Temmu.
 

Thande

Donor
I don't know about this specific case, but generally speaking in absolute monarchies, this is justified by the rebels saying that "the king is of course right and sacred but is being misled by evil advisors" and claiming (either in seriousness or not) that they just want to overthrow those advisors.
 
I don't know about this specific case, but generally speaking in absolute monarchies, this is justified by the rebels saying that "the king is of course right and sacred but is being misled by evil advisors" and claiming (either in seriousness or not) that they just want to overthrow those advisors.

Well, I think in general it works for some of them, but not all. For example, I'm pretty sure that at Dan-no-ura, the Minamoto knew that Emperor Antoku was on one of the Taira ships. I would think that, if their soldiers were careful about the divinity of the empire, they avoid injuring him, though I'm pretty sure this was not the case. And then there's the question of divided legitimacy. If one side held the Imperial Regalia (the Southern Court), wouldn't this be a sufficient claim to divinity? Why would people fight against that side from the Ashikaga Shogunate (or Northern Court) instead?
 
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