Prince Shiki

Prince Shiki was a son of Emperor Tenji and Koshi no Michi no Kimi Iratsume. He lived through the change from Tenji's Ōmi court to the government of Tenmu and Jitō. In 679, he was one of six princes who took a pledge at Yoshino in the royal chronicle's account. In 689, Jitō appointed him to the office for selecting exemplary sayings. His later duties included responsibility for Jitō's cremation arrangements and attendance at Monmu's mortuary palace. These were royal and ceremonial responsibilities, rather than a reign of his own. [S01, S02, S03]

The eighth-century Man'yōshū preserves six short poems attributed to Shiki. One celebrates spring through young bracken above rushing water; others show a more delicate or playful register. These works survive from a career chiefly associated with the Fujiwara capital period. The anthology also contains Kasa no Kanamura's elegies for him. Their heading gives his death as 715, while the Shoku Nihongi gives 716. The difference remains unresolved here. Neither his verse nor descriptions of his limited offices establish his private feelings about the succession. [S01]

His son Shirakabe became Emperor Kōnin in 770. Shirakabe's mother was Ki no Tochihime; another of Shiki's sons, Prince Kasuga, had Princess Taki as his mother. After Kōnin's accession, Shiki received a posthumous imperial designation associated with his Kasuga Palace. That later honor recognized him as an emperor's father within royal commemoration; it does not show that Shiki had occupied the throne during his lifetime. [S01, S04]