page_title: Emperor Kaika
section_title: Known information
hierarchical_section_title: Emperor Kaika / Known information
caption_attribution_description: Tomb of Emperor Kaika, Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. I took this photo and contribute my rights in the file to the public domain; individuals and organizations retain rights to images in it. See also Stone to right of center
context_page_description: Emperor Kaika, also known as Wakayamato Nekohiko Ōbibi no Mikoto in the Kojiki, and Wakayamato Nekohiko Ōbibi no Sumeramikoto in the Nihon Shoki is the ninth Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Very little is known about this Emperor due to a lack of material available for further verification and study. Kaika is known as a "legendary emperor" among historians as his actual existence is disputed. Nothing exists in the Kojiki other than his name and genealogy. Kaika's reign allegedly began in 158 BC, he had one wife and three consorts of which he fathered five children with. After his death in 98 BC, one of his sons supposedly became the next emperor.
context_section_description: The existence of at least the first nine Emperors is disputed due to insufficient material available for further verification and study. Kaika is thus regarded by historians as a "legendary Emperor", and is considered to have been the eighth of eight Emperors without specific legends associated with them. The name Kaika-tennō was assigned to him posthumously by later generations.
   His name might have been regularized centuries after the lifetime ascribed to Kaika, possibly during the time in which legends about the origins of the Yamato dynasty were compiled as the chronicles known today as the Kojiki. While the actual site of Kaika's grave is not known, the Emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) in Nara. The Imperial Household Agency designates this location as Kaika's mausoleum, and its formal name is Kasuga no Izakawa no saka no e no misasagi.
  Like Emperor Kōshō and Emperor Kōrei, there is a possibility that "Kaika" could have lived instead in the 1st century (AD). Historian Louis Frédéric notes this idea in his book Japan Encyclopedia where he says "more likely early AD", but this remains disputed among other researchers. The first emperor that historians state might have actually existed is Emperor Sujin, the 10th emperor of Japan. Outside of the Kojiki, the reign of Emperor Kinmei (c. 509 – 571 AD) is the first for which contemporary historiography is able to assign verifiable dates. The conventionally accepted names and dates of the early Emperors were not confirmed as "traditional" though, until the reign of Emperor Kanmu between 737 and 806 AD.
caption: Official tomb of Emperor Kaika in Nara.
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