Prince Ōtomo

Prince Ōtomo (648–672) was a son of Emperor Tenji, whose court moved to Ōtsu beside Lake Biwa. In 671, his father appointed him daijō daijin, the court's chief minister. After Tenji's death, Ōtomo administered the Ōtsu government with senior ministers, including Soga no Akaye and Nakatomi no Kane. His position gave him substantial responsibility, but it did not settle the succession. [S01, S02]

His uncle, Prince Ōama, had withdrawn to Yoshino during Tenji's final illness. In 672, Ōama gathered forces against the Ōtsu court in the Jinshin War. Ōtomo's side lost, and he died by suicide; the victorious uncle subsequently ruled as Emperor Tenmu. Ōtomo also appears in the eighth-century Kaifūsō, a collection of poetry written in Chinese, which preserves two poems attributed to him. That literary record offers a small glimpse of his courtly learning alongside the account of his political defeat. [S01, S03]

The name Emperor Kōbun was bestowed on Ōtomo posthumously in 1870. Later texts had treated him as an emperor, but whether he formally acceded before the war remains disputed. His place at the center of the Ōtsu government is clearer than the exact status of his short rule: the modern imperial designation cannot by itself establish what happened in 672. [S04]