why emperor for Japan?

[curwin]

When the Europeans came to Japan, they decided to call the Japanese leader "emperor". Why? Why not king? Why not the "Emperor of Siam"?

[capybara]

Well, the emperor technically ruled over a number of Daimyo (sort of warlords) who had their own territories and would have looked to Europeans like kings-- may have seemed analogous to small kingdoms reigned over by a higher emperor.?

[Akatsukami]

SFAIK, there's no good answer to this question (which can also be extended to, "Why did early explorers think that it was cool to translate huang ti, negus negusti, and whatever the Nahuatl and Hindi words were as 'emperor'"?)

Possibly early explorers found it easier to pick up barmaids if they said, "Forsooth, babe, I have just returned from a two year voyage to the Empire of Fillintheblank" than if they said, "Yeah, I've been bumming around some pagan kingdoms until the sheriff forgot about me". Or not. As I've noted before, I don't know anyone whose necromantic powers extend to calling up their shades and compelling them to give the Straight Dope.

[AWB]

Definition of an empire

1. a group of nations or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign or government: usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom, as the former British Empire, French Empire, Russian Empire, Byzantine Empire, or Roman Empire.

[Duke]

I thought the term "emperor" denoted a person who was not only the head of a nation but also its spiritual leader as well. In England, for example, some started calling Henry VIII after he became head of the Church in England.

Since the head of Japan was considered a deity (a status only revoked shortly after WWII) perhaps Europeans translated his Japanese title to "Emperor" for this reason.

[TomH]

In England, for example, some started calling Henry VIII ["Emperor"] after he became head of the Church in England

I doubt it. The title of the Monarch as head of the C of E is "Defender of the Faith" (look on your coins: "D.G.REG.Fidem.Defensor). I believe that the first British Monarch to be styled Emperor(ess) was Victoria, from about the mid-1800s.

In any event, the British Monarch has never been considered a living god in the way the Emperor of Japan has.

[MEBuckner]

Tenno (http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/7/0,5716,73567+1+71703,00.html) , the Japanese title westerners translate as "emperor", comes from the Chinese t'ien-huang, or "heavenly emperor". The Chinese have a word, wang, which is translated as "king", while huang is generally rendered into western languages as "emperor", which makes a certain amount of sense when referring to the monarch of China, a large country which is made up of disparate regions and which historically has often been divided into independent states or kingdoms. Since the Japanese title derives from huang, not wang, they get to be called emperors too. As to the question of why the ruler of a relatively small and homogeneous country like Japan would call himself an "emperor" (huang) rather than a "king" (wang), one suspects sheer self-aggrandizement. (The Japanese did carve out quite a little empire for themselves before and during World War II, but I think the use of tenno predates Japan's imperial conquests outside of the home islands.)

Akatsukami also mentions negusa negast, the Ethiopian title translated as "emperor" by westerners. Since this literally means "king of kings", the translation makes a certain amount of sense, as in the definition of an empire provided by AWB.

[MEBuckner]

[quote]I believe that the first British Monarch to be styled Emperor(ess) was Victoria, from about the mid-1800s.[quote]

And Victoria was an Empress because she was Empress of India--not only is India large enough and diverse enough to justify an imperial rather than a royal title, but British India also contained numerous "sovereign" princely states which were dependent on the British, so the British monarch was a "king of kings" as well.

[MEBuckner]

Whoops--guess I'm not as handy with these vB codes as I thought....

[APB]

Henry VIII considered himself to have an 'imperial crown', i.e. he was a sovereign ruler who was subordinate to no other ruler. This was using 'imperial' in a slightly different sense to the more usual meaning of pertaining to an emperor.

I have always assumed that Western governments accepted the translation 'emperor' for the ruler of Japan as a form of diplomatic flattery, but would be happy to be corrected.

[C K Dexter Haven]

Singing:

Mikado:
From every kind of man
Obedience I expect;
I'm the Emperor of Japan...

Katisha:
And I'm his daughter-in-law elect!

[Ariadne]

Victoria only became an empress after India was added. And that title was separated off from her other titles, no one ever referred to her as Empress Victoria. They just tacked Empress of India of India on to her other titles. The last King George (8th, wasn't he?) was the last emperor of India, because India gained independence. So Queen Elizabeth II isn't an empress, in spite of all the countries in her commonwealth.

[Polycarp]

Ariadne nailed it. Victoria was not "Empress of the British Empire" -- she was "Empress of India" -- by the very good reason that the last Mogul Emperor, whose authority stretched about to the limits of his palace or whatever he could talk the British "advisor" who actually ran his dominions into, was forced to resign after the Sepoy mutiny in 1857, and Victoria as monarch of the country holding 99.998% of India was deemed his successor.

Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, and George VI (until 1947) were deemed King-Emperors and their monograms were GRI and ERI (for "Georgius or Edwardius Rex Imperator"). It's probably worth noting that the last Empress of India is still alive, in the person of Elizabeth the Queen Mother.