The Tragic Fate of Emperor Antoku

Think you're too young for responsibility? Try ruling an empire at age seven. In the 1100s,

Japan crowned a little boy named Emperor Antoku. He became the symbolic leader of an empire

in the middle of a violent civil war. Clans used him as a political tool,

pulling his fate like a rope in a deadly tug-of-war. He had no real power, just a title that

made him a target. At age seven, his life ended in the tragic Battle of Dan-no-ura.

As their ship sank, his grandmother held him tightly and jumped into the sea,

choosing death over capture. It remains one of the most heartbreaking stories in Japanese

history. A child emperor caught in the crossfire of adult ambitions. He never got to