For most of the Shogunate periods, the Japanese Emperor was a nominal figurehead who didn't exercise administrative power. Were there any Emperors who tried to take a more active role in politics? If so, what happened?

by RepresentativePop

I'm particularly interested in cases (if they exist) in which an Emperor attempted to assert his authority over a Shogun in order to enact policy that they agreed with, trying to take a more "hands-on" approach to policy. Or if an Emperor ever actually tried to "fire" the Shogun of his own accord for doing things the Emperor didn't like.

I don't know of an example, but my suspicion wold be that the Emperor would be condescendingly ignored. I'm also curious what the public perception of such an Emperor would have been; my understanding was that politics was regarded as "beneath" the Emperor, and so taking a role in administration would have been seen as undignified or embarrassing for him.

dagaboy

The role of the Emperor and court changed a lot over the last 1200 years, and I would not say that the generalization that the office was a figurehead vis a vis the Bakufu was uniformly true. While you wait for a current answer, /u/ParallelPain discussed it in this answer, and this answer. I'd say the Emperor who most closely represents what you are looking for is Go-Daigo, who overthrew the Kamakura Bakufu.