Emperor Kōgon

Emperor Kōgon (1313–1364), a son of Go-Fushimi, belonged to the imperial line known as Jimyōin. Educated under Emperor Hanazono, he became crown prince in 1326. The Kamakura government installed him as emperor after Go-Daigo’s defeat in 1331. When the military regime fell in 1333, Go-Daigo returned and deposed him. His first reign was caught within the struggle over succession and the government’s authority to influence it. [S01]

Kōgon resumed political work in 1336, when Ashikaga Takauji supported his younger brother Kōmyō’s accession in Kyoto. At Takauji’s request he conducted retired imperial government, or insei, directing court affairs from outside the reigning emperor’s office. The Southern Court maintained Go-Daigo’s rival claim from Yoshino. Kōgon’s direction of court affairs supplied the Ashikaga with an active imperial partner in Kyoto. [S01]

The Ashikaga civil conflict exposed that court’s vulnerability. In 1352 Southern forces detained Kōgon and other imperial family members. He took Buddhist vows during captivity and returned to Kyoto in 1357. He then devoted himself to Zen practice, eventually withdrawing to Yamaguni in the mountains northwest of Kyoto, where he died in 1364. Deposition had not ended his public authority; captivity and religious withdrawal ultimately brought his political career to a close. [S01]