Hachiman and the Legend of Empress Jingu

This group gathers artworks tied to the legend of Empress Jingu, a semi-legendary regent said to have ruled Japan after her husband's death around 200 CE, and to her son, later venerated as the deity Hachiman. According to the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Jingu campaigned abroad while carrying her unborn child, delaying his birth through ritual means until her return, and the boy, born three years after his conception, later reigned as the semi-legendary Emperor Ojin. Ojin's own spirit came to be worshipped as Hachiman, a syncretic deity of war and protection widely enshrined across Japan. An ema depicting Jingu, her minister and the infant Ojin, and a seated statue of Hachiman himself, together commemorate this mother and son legend.