page_title: Emperor Kōmei
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Emperor Kōmei / Early life
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 孝明天皇の冕冠
context_page_description: Emperor Kōmei was the 121st Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōmei's reign spanned the years from 1846 through 1867, corresponding to the final years of the Edo period.
  During his reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of Japan's first major contact with the United States, which occurred under Commodore Perry in 1853 and 1854, and the subsequent forced re-opening of Japan to western nations, ending a 220-year period of national seclusion. Emperor Kōmei did not care much for anything foreign, and he opposed opening Japan to Western powers. His reign would continue to be dominated by insurrection and partisan conflicts eventually culminating in the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate shortly after his death and the Meiji Restoration in the beginning of the reign of his son and successor Emperor Meiji.
context_section_description: Before Kōmei's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (imina) was Osahito (統仁) and his title was Hiro-no-miya (煕宮). Osahito was born on 22 July 1831 and was the fourth son of Emperor Ninkō and his consort Fujiwara no Tsuneko (藤原雅子). Osahito's Imperial Family lived with him in the Dairi of the Heian Palace.
  Unknown to his time, Koumei had suffered from multiple hereditary diseases that were the result of inbreeding. These genetic defects included but were not limited to prognathism and Spinal deformation. The direct cause of Koumei's health condition is the consanguineous marriages tradition of Japanese upper class, which continued for centuries.
caption: The Imperial crown of Japanese Emperor Kōmei
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