was the 58th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kà Âkà  reigned from 884 to 887.
Before the emperor's ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his name (imina) was or Komatsu-tei. He would later be identified sometimes as "the Emperor of Komatsu". This resulted in the later Emperor Go-Komatsu adopting this name (go- meaning "later", so "Later Emperor Komatsu" or "Emperor Komatsu II"). Kà Âkà  had four Imperial consorts and 41 Imperial sons and daughters.
Prince Tokiyasu was the third son of Emperor Ninmyà Â. His mother was Fujiwara no Sawako.From a young age, he was favored by Empress Dowager Tachibana no Kachiko. In 843, he came of age in the presence of his father, Emperor Ninmyà Â, becoming a prince and was granted the fourth rank. Thereafter, he held almost all of the official positions customarily held by princes, including Minister of the Central Affairs, Minister of Ceremonial Affairs, Chief of the Sumo Bureau, Governor of Dazaifu, Governor of Hitachi Province, and Governor of Kà Âzuke Province. (These were distant appointments, and he did not actually reside in those provinces). In 882, he was granted the first rank, becoming the foremost prince.
Following Emperor Yà Âzei's forced abdication he ascended the throne in 884 at the age of 55 as Emperor Kà Âkà Â. Prior to this, Fujiwara no Mototsune, the regent and maternal cousin, strongly advocated for Prince Tokiyasu, and Fujiwara no Morokazu, drew his sword and intimidated the assembly, thus suppressing any dissenting opinion. After his enthronement, Emperor Kà Âkà  appointed Mototsune as regent and entrusted him with the affairs of state, as had been the case with the previous reign. The Tsurezuregusa recounts that even after his enthronement, Tsurezuregusa left the room where he had once cooked, stained with black soot, as a reminder of his difficult times as a prince. A similar anecdote is found in the Kojidan. However, given his position as a prince of high status, he should not have been in such dire straits.
Emperor Kà Âkà Â, anticipating that Mototsune would have his nephew, Prince Sadayasu (Emperor Yà Âzei's younger brother), succeed to the throne, publicly declared his intention not to pass the throne to his descendants by demoting all of his children to commoner status upon his enthronement. However, Mototsune was in conflict with his sister, Dowager Empress Takako, and was obstructing the enthronement of her son, Prince Sadayasu, as Crown Prince, thus preventing a clear successor. Eventually, Emperor Kà Âkà  fell ill, and to resolve the issue, restored his son, Minamoto no Sadamitsu, to the imperial family and appointed him Crown Prince. On the same day, the Emperor Kà Âkà  died at the age of 58, and Prince Sadamitsu ascended to the throne as Emperor Uda.
Just 26 days before his death, the Ninna earthquake (according to the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku), devastated the Kinai region. Also, in the same year, wind and flood disasters occurred throughout the country.
Emperor Kà Âkà  is said to have been a cultured man skilled in various arts, and he worked to revive ancient court ceremonies. He excelled in waka poetry and the koto (Japanese zither), and he revived falconry, following the precedent set by Emperor Kanmu. Furthermore, perhaps due to his experience as the head of the Sumo Bureau during his time as a prince, he encouraged sumo wrestling after his enthronement. In his later years, he planned to establish an imperial temple near Uda-in, which is believed to have been his residence during his time as a prince. However, neither of these plans came to fruition, and these aspirations were carried on by his successor, Emperor Uda, who sponsored the founding of Ninna-ji.
Per the Nihon Kiryaku, the grave of the emperor was the and eight temples within the mausoleum grounds are demolished to construct the mausoleum. In 1106, during the reconstruction of the monks' quarters at Ninna-ji's North Precinct, the western earthen wall encroached upon the mausoleum grounds (according to the Chà «yà «ki). Afterward, the location of the mausoleum became unknown.
During theEdo period, Bunkyu Restoration of the imperial graves (1862-1863), the site of the tomb was not found and therefore not repaired. June 1889, the current location of Tennà Âzuka (Ukyà Â-ku, Kyoto) was designated as the mausoleum of Emperor Kà Âkà  by the Imperial Household Agency as the Kaguragaoka no Higashi no misasagi.
The first kampaku Fujiwara no Mototsune was influential in the process by which Kà Âkà  became an emperor. At the time Emperor Yà Âzei was deposed, Prince Tokiyasu was already Governor of Hitachi and Chief Minister of Ceremonies (Jibu-kyà Â, æ²»é¨å¿).
According to Kitabatake Chikafusa's 14th-century account, Mototsune resolved the problem of succession by simply going to visit Tokiyasu-shinnà Â, where the kampaku addressed the prince as a sovereign and assigned imperial guards. The prince signaled his acceptance by going into the imperial palanquin, which then conducted him to the emperor's residence within the palace. Curiously, he was still wearing the robes of a prince when he decided to take this ride into an entirely unanticipated future.
During his reign, Kà Âkà  revived many ancient court rituals and ceremonies, and one example is the imperial hawking excursion to Serikawa, which had been initiated in 796 by Emperor Kanmu. This ritual event was revived by Kà Âkà  after a lapse of 50 years.
is a collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre-Meiji eras.
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 Kà Âkà Â's reign, this apex of the Daijà Â-kan included:
The years of Kà Âkà Â's reign are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengà Â.
Emperor Kà Âkà  is well-remembered for his poetry, and one of his waka appeared in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu: