Kazan

Kazan (968-1008) became emperor at age seventeen but reigned for only two years (984-986) before being tricked by Fujiwara Kane'ie into taking the tonsure and abdicating the throne. Kazan's favorite consort had died, leaving him grief-stricken, and the wily Kane'ie used the opportunity to convince the young emperor to abandon the world. The new imperial designate was Ichijō, Kane'ie's six-year-old grandson. Barred from any kind of political power, Kazan became known as a wildly extravagant aesthete. The stories of the parties, wine-drinking, cockfights, and dalliances he was involved in are legion. History has judged him mentally unstable, although it seems to me his behavior could be seen as an understandable reaction to the political tides that swept his power away. Kazan was fond of Chinese literature, and was a patron of Murasaki's father.