Historians say that the first leader of Japan’s imperial family took power more than 1,400 years ago, when Empress Suiko ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 592 AD. Suiko would hold her ...

There are precedents for women to ascend the imperial throne. Japan's first empress, Suiko, began her reign in 655. Seven more women succeeded to the throne over the next century and a half.

The first known woman to achieve the title of empress in Japan was Suiko, who ruled from AD554 to AD628. Suiko followed in Himiko’s footsteps by appointing a man, Prince Shotoku, as her regent.

When Empress Suiko took the throne, she was 39 years old; Prince Shōtoku, then known as Umayado, was only around 20.

Masks were part of the Japanese theater tradition as far back as the early 7th century, starting with the now-defunct gigaku and introduced during the 20th year of Empress Suiko’s reign, and ...

Tradition tells that the priest Chishun established Gakuenji around the time of the Empress Suiko (554-628) though centuries passed before it was first alluded to in literary records.

This takes us back to the year 628, the thirty-sixth year in the reign of Empress Suiko, who ruled from Asuka in modern Nara Prefecture.

The Empress, the Priest and the Warrior Monk Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the 6th century, and an instrumental figure in its spread was Empress Suiko, who in a break from tradition ascended the ...