Jingo of Japan

Jingo is a legendary empress of Japan, wife of Chuai, the 14th emperor of Japan.

On her husbands death she assumed the government, and fitted out an army for the invasion of Korea. She returned to Japan completely victorious after three years absence. Subsequently her son Ojin, afterwards 15th emperor, was born, and later was canonized as Hachiman, god of war. The empress Jingo ruled over Japan till 270.

As regards the English oath, usually By Jingo, or By the living Jingo, the derivation is doubtful. The identification with the name of Gingulph or Gengulphus, a Burgundian saint who was martyred on the 11th of May 760, was a joke on the part of R. H. Barham, author of the Ingoldsby Legends. Some explain the word as a corruption of Jainko, the Basque name for God. It has also been derived from the Persian jang (war), St Jingo being the equivalent of the Latin god of war, Mars; and is even explained as a corruption of Jesus, Son of God, Je-n-go. In

The article is originally from 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica