page_title: Emperor Kōkaku
section_title: Abdication and death
hierarchical_section_title: Emperor Kōkaku / Events of Kōkaku's life / Abdication and death
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 桜町殿行幸図２　鳳輦
context_page_description: Emperor Kōkaku was the 119th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōkaku reigned from 16 December 1780 until his abdication on 7 May 1817 in favor of his son, Emperor Ninkō. After his abdication, he ruled as Daijō Tennō also known as a Jōkō until his death in 1840. The next emperor to resign of his own accord was Akihito, the Emperor of the Heisei Era, in 2019, 202 years later.
  Major events in Kōkaku's life included an ongoing famine that affected Japan early into his rule. The response he gave during the time was welcomed by the people, and helped to undermine the shōgun's authority. The Kansei Reforms came afterwards as a way for the shōgun to cure a range of perceived problems which had developed in mid-18th century but was met with partial success.
  A member of a cadet branch of the Imperial Family, Kōkaku is the founder of the dynastic imperial branch which currently sits on the throne. Kōkaku had one spouse during his lifetime, and six concubines who gave birth to sixteen children. Only one son survived into adulthood and eventually became the next Emperor.
context_section_description: In 1817, Kōkaku abdicated in favor of his son, Emperor Ninkō. In the two centuries before Kōkaku's reign most Emperors died young or were forced to abdicate. Kōkaku was the first Japanese monarch to remain on the throne past the age of 40 since the abdication of Emperor Ōgimachi in 1586. Until the abdication of Emperor Akihito in 2019, he was the last Emperor to rule as a Jōkō (上皇), an Emperor who abdicated in favor of a successor. Kōkaku travelled in procession to Sento Imperial Palace, a palace of an abdicated Emperor. The Sento Palace at that time was called Sakura Machi Palace. It had been built by the Tokugawa shogunate for former-Emperor Go-Mizunoo.
  After Kōkaku's death in 1840, he was enshrined in the Imperial mausoleum, Nochi no Tsukinowa no Higashiyama no misasagi (後月輪東山陵), which is at Sennyū-ji in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto.  Also enshrined in Tsuki no wa no misasagi, at Sennyū-ji are this Emperor's immediate Imperial predecessors since Emperor Go-Mizunoo – Meishō, Go-Kōmyō, Go-Sai, Reigen, Higashiyama, Nakamikado, Sakuramachi, Momozono, Go-Sakuramachi and Go-Momozono. This mausoleum complex also includes misasagi for Kōkaku's immediate successors – Ninkō and Kōmei. Empress Dowager Yoshikō is also entombed at this Imperial mausoleum complex.
caption: Emperor Kōkaku leaving for Sentō Imperial Palace after abdicating in 1817
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