Empress Jitō

Empress Jitō (645–703), born Princess Uno-no-sarara, was Emperor Tenji's daughter and empress to her uncle Emperor Tenmu. After Tenmu's death in 686 she ran the court, and when her son Crown Prince Kusakabe died in 689 she upheld the claim of her young grandson Karu.

Enthroned in 690 as Japan's third empress regnant, she carried on Tenmu's centralising reforms. In 697 she abdicated for her grandson Emperor Monmu, becoming the first daijō-tennō, and ruled on in retirement until her death in 703.