Empress Koken

Empress Koken was the 46th and 48th monarch of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Seeking to protect the bloodline of Prince Kusakabe, her father, Emperor Shomu, named her as his heir in 738, and she succeeded him as empress regnant in 749 after he retired to become a Buddhist monk. With the backing of her mother, Empress Komyo, and her cousin Fujiwara no Nakamaro, she outmaneuvered a largely hostile Daijo-kan. Her father died in 756 having named a cousin unrelated to the Fujiwara clan as her heir; this outraged her maternal Fujiwara relatives, and Koken replaced him with Prince Oi, a close ally of her mother and Nakamaro. In 757 she headed off a conspiracy against her by Tachibana no Naramaro, and resigned the following year to serve as empress emerita while Oi reigned as Emperor Junnin.