>To keep *myself* straight, these are names that are adopted at death
>because there's some hesitancy to use the name used during life, right?
>Who chooses them?
Yes, that's right. I don't know who chooses them, though.
As for what the Japanese Emperor is known as, it's important to understand
something else first-- era names bear the Emperor's reign name, but this
only started with Meiji. Before then, the ruling military government, such
as the Minamoto, Ashikaga, or Tokugawa shogunates, chose the era name so
that it would be an auspicious one, and would change it at a whim. However,
for example, if one era ended on June 6th, and the next era began the next
day, the next day would not be January 1st-- the next day would be June 7th,
but it would be June 7th of the first year of the new era.
That being said (phew) as far as emperors from Meiji onwards go, let's take
the current one (Akihito) as an example.
Right now, "Akihito" is his personal name. However, the era name is called
"Heisei". The Japanese people, however, do NOT call him "Akihito"-- now, as
it will be after his death, tehy call him the "Heisei tenno" ("Heisei
Emperor").
Simple as that.
--M.
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