Jingū (born 170? ce, Japan—died 269?, Japan) was a semilegendary empress-regent of Japan who is said to have established Japanese hegemony over Korea.
According to the traditional records of ancient Japan, Jingū was the wife of Chūai, the 14th sovereign (reigned 192–200), and the regent for her son Ōjin. Aided by a pair of divine jewels that allowed her to control the tides, she is said to have begun her bloodless conquest of Korea in 200, the year in which her husband died. According to legend, her unborn son Ōjin, later deified as Hachiman, the god of war, remained in her womb for three years, giving her time to complete the conquest and return to Japan.
Although the traditional chronology of the period is doubtful and many of the deeds ascribed to Jingū are undoubtedly fictitious, it is certain that by the 4th century ce the Japanese had established some control over southern Korea.
There is no way of verifying the existence of a specific empress named Jingū, but it is thought that a matriarchal society existed in western Japan during this period. Chinese and Korean records, considered to be more accurate than contemporary Japanese accounts, refer to the Japanese country of Wa as the Queen Country and place it in close contact with China and Korea.