Empress Meishō (明正天皇 Meishō-tennō) (January 9, 1624–December 4, 1696) was the 109th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. She was the seventh woman to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. The years of her reign spanned the period from December 22, 1629 to November 14, 1643.

She was the second daughter of Emperor Go-Mizunoo. Her mother was Tokugawa Kazuko, daughter of the second Tokugawa shōgun, Tokugawa Hidetada. She had no children of her own.

Her personal name was Okiko (興子); and her pre-accession title was Onna-Kazu-no-miya (女和宮).

Her name was derived by combining the names of two previous empresses, Empress Gemmei (707–715) and her daughter Empress Genshō (715–724).

In 1629, she became Empress after her father, Emperor Go-Mizunoo suddenly abdicated in the "Purple Clothes Incident."

* Kan'ei 6 (1627): The "Purple Clothes Incident" (紫衣事件, shi-e jiken): The Emperor was accused of having bestowed honorific purple garments to more than ten priests despite the shogun's edict which banned them for two years (probably in order to break the bond between the Emperor and religious circles). The shogunate intervened making the bestowing of the garments invalid.

Meishō became the first woman to occupy the throne since Empress Shōtoku, who died in 770.

* Kan'ei 6, on the 8th day of the 11th month (1629): The emperor renounced the throne in favor of his daughter. * Kan'ei 8 (1635): * Kan'ei 9, on the 24th day of the 1st month (1632): Former Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada died. * Kan'ei 10, on the 20th day of the 1st month (1633): There was an earthquake in Odawara in Sagami province. * Kanei 11 (1634): Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu visited Miyako. * Kanei 12 (1635): An ambassador from the King of Korea is received in Miyako. * Kanei 14 (1637): There is a major Christian rebellion in Arima and Shimabara; and shogunal forces are sent to quell the disturbance. * Kanei 15 (1638): The Arima and Shimabara revolt is crushed; and 37,000 of the rebels are killed. The Christian religion is extirpated in Japan. * Kanei 17 (1640): A Spanish ship from Macao brought a delegation of 61 people to Nagasaki. They arrived on July 6, 1640; and on August 9th, all of them were decapitated and their heads were stuck on poles. * Kanei 20 (1643): An ambassador from the King of Korea arrived in Japan. * Kanei 20, on the 29th day of the 9th month (1643): In the 15th year of Meishō-tennō's reign (__天皇15年), the empress abdicated; and the succession (‘‘senso’’) was received by her brother. * Kanei 20, on the 23rd day of the 4th month (1643): Emperor Go-Komyō is said to have acceded to the throne (‘‘sokui’’).

During her reign, Meishō's father actually ruled in her name until she abdicated in favor of her younger half-brother.

Kugyō (公卿) is a collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre-Meiji eras. Even during those years in which the court's actual influence outside the palace walls was minimal, the hierarchic organization persisted.

In general, this elite group included only three to four men at a time. These were hereditary courtiers whose experience and background would have brought them to the pinnacle of a life's career. During Meishō's reign, this apex of the Daijō-kan included: * Sadaijin * Udaijin * Nadaijin * Dainagon<i>

The years of Meishō's reign are encompassed within one era name or </i>nengō. * Kan'ei<i> (1624-1644)

* Titsingh, Julius. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō (1652)], </i>Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon, tr. par M. Isaac Titsingh avec l'aide de plusieurs interprètes attachés au comptoir hollandais de Nangasaki; ouvrage re., complété et cor. sur l'original japonais-chinois, accompagné de notes et précédé d'un Aperçu d'histoire mythologique du Japon, par M. J. Klaproth. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. --Two copies of this rare book have now been made available online: (1) from the library of the University of Michigan, digitized January 30, 2007; and (2) from the library of Stanford University, digitized June 23, 2006. Click here to read the original text in French. * Varley, H. Paul, ed. (1980). [ Kitabatake Chikafusa, 1359], Jinnō Shōtōki ("A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa" translated by H. Paul Varley).'' New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-04940-4

* Japanese empresses