Emperor Kaika

is the 9th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō), 開化天皇 (9); retrieved 2011-10-19. according to the traditional order of succession.Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 6-7; Brown, Delmer et al. (1979). Gukanshō, p. 252; Varley, Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki, p. 93; Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric et al. (2002).  "Traditional order of Tennō" in Japan encyclopedia, pp. 962-963.  Historians consider Emperor Kaika to be a legendary person;Kelly, Charles F.  "Kofun Culture,"  Japanese Archaeology. April 27, 2009; retrieved 2011-10-19. and the name Kaika-tennō was created for him posthumously by later generations.

No certain dates can be assigned to the emperor's life or reign.Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan, p. 30.  The conventionally accepted names and sequence of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of Emperor Kammu, who was the 50th monarch of the Yamato dynasty.Aston, William George. (1896). Nihongi, pp. 109. 

The Gukanshō records that Kaika ruled from the palace of Isakawa-no-miya at Kasuga in what will come to be known as Yamato province.Brown, p. 252.

Traditional history
Kaika is almost certainly a legend. The Kojiki records only his name and genealogy. The  Nihonshoki includes Kaika as the eighth of .Aston, William George. (1896).  Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.  OCLC 448337491

Kaika was the second son of Emperor Kōgen.

Some scholars question the existence of the first nine emperors. These critics consider Kōgen's son (Suijin) to be the earliest to have actually existed."Life in the Cloudy Imperial Fishbowl," Japan Times. March 27, 2007; retrieved 2011-10-19.

Events of Kaika's life
The absence of information about Kaika does not imply that no such person ever existed. Very little information is available for study prior to the reign of the 29th monarch, Emperor Kimmei.Titsingh, pp. 34-36; Brown, pp. 261-262; Varley, pp. 123-124.

 After his death 
This emperor's official name after his death (his posthumous name) was regularized many centuries after the lifetime which was ascribed to Kaika. 

The actual site of his grave is not known.  According to the Imperial Household Agency, this emperor is venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) in Nara.

Related pages
 Emperor of Japan
 List of emperors of Japan
 Japanese imperial family tree

 References 

 Other websites

Category:Emperors of Japan