Tenmu period

History of Japan
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Glossary Timeline

The Temmu period is a chronological timeframe during the Asuka period of Japanese history. The Temmu period describes a span of years which were considered to have begun in the 1333rd year of the Yamato dynasty.^[1]

This periodization is congruent with the reign of Emperor Tenmu, which is traditionally considered to have been from 673 through 686.^[2]

Periodization

The adoption of the Sexagenary cycle calendar (Jikkan Jūnishi) in Japan is attributed to Empress Suiko in 604;^[3] and this Chinese calendar continued in use throughout the Tenmu period.

In 645, the system of Japanese era names (年号,, nengō,, "year name") was introduced.^[4] However, after the reign of Emperor Kōtoku, this method of segmenting time was temporarily abandoned or allowed to lapse. This interval continues during the Tenmu period.

Neither Emperor Tenmu's reign nor the Tenmu periodization are included in the list of nengō for this explicit duration of time. The Hakuhō period (白鳳時代, hakuhō jidai, lit. "white phoenix") was an unofficial nengō during the reign of Emperor Temmu^[5] after Hakuchi^[6] and before Suchō.^[7] The duration of this discrete non-nengō timespan lasted for 15 years.^[5]

In the post-Taika or pre-Taihō chronology, the first year of Emperor Tenmu's reign (年号天皇元年 or 年号天皇1年) is also construed as the first year of the Temmu period (年号1年).^[8]

Non-nengō period

Non-nengō periods in the pre-Taihō calendar were published in 1880 by William Bramsen.^[1] These were refined in 1952 by Paul Tsuchihashi in Japanese Chronological Tables from 601 to 1872.^[8]

The pre-Tahiō calendar included two non-nengō gaps or intervals in the chronological series:

• Taika, August 645–February 650.^[9]
• Hakuchi, February 650–December 654.^[5]
  • Non-nengō dating systems
• Shuchō, July–September 686.^[10]
  • Non-nengō dating systems
• Taihō, March 701–May 704.^[11]

Nengō were not promulgated (or were allowed to lapse) during the gap years between Hakuchi and Shuchō, and in another gap between Shuchō and Taihō.

Events of Temmu period

• 673 (Kōbun 2): Emperor Tenji dies; and his son, Ō-ama-shinnō (later to become Emperor Tenmu), declines to receive the succession (senso). Shortly thereafter, his older brother, Ōtomo (posthumously known as Emperor Kōbun after 1870^[27]), formally accedes to the throne (sokui).^[28] Anticipating trouble will foment around his brother, Emperor Kōbun leads an army against his brother. The forces defending against Kōbun's attack are ultimately successful, and belatedly, the son whom Emperor Tenji had designated heir accepts senso and sokui.^[29]
• 673 (Temmu 1): A new period is marked by the beginning of the reign of Emperor Temmu^[30]
• 674 (Temmu 2): Ambassadors of Tane no kuni were received in the Japanese court.^[31]
• 680 (Temmu 8): Yakushi-ji was founded in the Hakuhou period^[32]

See also

• Regnal name
• List of Japanese era names

Notes

References

• Bramsen, William. (1880). Japanese Chronological Tables: Showing the Date, According to the Julian or Gregorian Calendar, of the First Day of Each Japanese Month, from Tai-kwa 1st year to Mei-ji 6th year (645 to 1873): with an Introductory Essay on Japanese Chronology and Calendars. Tokyo: Seishi Bunsha. OCLC 35728014
• Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; OCLC 251325323
• Murray, David. (1894). The Story of Japan. New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC 1016340
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Ōdai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691
• Tsuchihashi, Paul Yashita, S.J. (1952). Japanese chronological tables from 601 to 1872 (邦曆西曆對照表: 自推古九年至明治五年, Hōreki seireki taishōhyō: Suiko kyūnen yori Meiji gonen ni itaru). Tokyo: Sophia University. OCLC 001291275
• Varley, H. Paul. (1980). A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-04940-5; OCLC 6042764
• Zöllner, Reinhard. (2003). Japanische Zeitrechnung: ein Handbuch Munich: Iudicium Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89129-783-4; OCLC 249297777

External links

• National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection