was a after ''

Kaei was a after ''Kōka'' and before ''Ansei''. This period spanned the years from February 1848 through November 1854. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * February 28, 1848 : The era name of ''Kaei'' (meaning "eternal felicity")Satow, Erne ...

'' and before ''

Man'en was a after ''Ansei'' and before ''Bunkyū''. This period spanned the years from March 1860 through February 1861. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * March 18, 1860 (): The new era name was created to mark the destruction caused by a ...

''. This period spanned the years from November 1854 through March 1860. The reigning emperor was .

Change of era

* November 27, 1854 (): The new era name of ''Ansei'' (meaning "tranquil government") was created to herald the beginning of a peaceful period. The impetus and explanation for this change of era names was said to have been the burning of the Palace in Kyoto in the preceding summer.Satow, Ernest Mason. (1905)
''Japan 1853–1864, Or, Genji Yume Monogatari'', p. 11.
/ref> The new era name was derived from an hortatory aphorism: "Rule peacefully over the masses, then the ruler will remain in his place" (庶民安政、然後君子安位矣). Although the notion seems appealing, the arrival of the

Black Ships The Black Ships (in ja, 黒船, translit=kurofune, Edo period term) was the name given to Western vessels arriving in Japan in the 16th and 19th centuries. In 1543 Portuguese initiated the first contacts, establishing a trade route linking G ...

and Commodore

Matthew C. Perry Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a commodore of the United States Navy who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He played a leading role in the o ...

is not specifically recognized as a factor in the change of era names.

Events of the ''Ansei'' era

* 1854 (''Ansei 1''): The Ansei-Tōkai Quake (安政東海地震, ''Ansei Tōkai Jishin'') was an 8.4 magnitude earthquake which struck on December 23, 1854. The

epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

ranged from

Suruga Bay Suruga Bay (駿河湾, ''Suruga-wan'') is a bay on the Pacific coast of Honshū in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is situated north of a straight line from Omaezaki Point to Irōzaki Point at the tip of the Izu Peninsula and surrounded by Honshū ...

to the deep ocean, and struck primarily in the

Tōkai region The is a subregion of the Chūbu region and Kansai region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes. Because Tōkai is a sub-region and is not officially classified, there is s ...

, but destroyed houses as far away as in

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

. The accompanying

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

caused damage along the entire coast from the

Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula covers ...

in modern-day

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syste ...

(modern-day

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 757,914 (1 December 2011) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and ...

)_____. (2007). in , p. 253. * 1854 (''Ansei 1''): The Ansei-Nankai Quake (安政南海地震, ''Ansei Nankai Jishin'') was an 8.4 magnitude earthquake which struck on December 24, 1854. Over 10,000 people from the Tōkai region down to Kyushu were killed. * 1855 (''Ansei 2''): Work was begun on re-constructing the Imperial Palace after the devastating fire of ''

'' 7, and the project was completed in nine months.Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1956). ''Kyoto: The Old Capital of Japan, 794–1869.'' p. 324. * 1855 (''Ansei 2, 21st day of the 11th month''): The emperor moved into the reconstructed palace, having previously lived in the Shōgo-in and then

Katsura-no-miya :''See also Prince Katsura, the second son of Prince Mikasa.'' The was the one of the four ''shinnōke'', branches of the Imperial Family of Japan which were eligible to succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne in the event that the main line should ...

. The people were permitted to view the grand Imperial progress. * November 11, 1855 (''Ansei 2''):

1855 Edo earthquake The , was the third Ansei Great Earthquake, which occurred during the late-Edo period. It occurred after the 1854 Nankai earthquake, which took place about a year prior. The earthquake occurred at 22:00 local time on 11 November. It had an epi ...

, one of the

Ansei great earthquakes The Ansei great earthquakes (安政の大地震, ''Ansei no Dai Jishin'') were a series of major earthquakes that struck Japan during the Ansei era (1854–1860): * The Ansei Tōkai quake ( ja, 安政東海地震, Ansei Tōkai Jishin, label=none) ...

, with resulting fire damage and loss of life. Epicenter – (Latitude: 36.000/Longitude: 140.000), 6.9 magnitude on the

Richter Scale The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...

. * November 15, 1857 (''Ansei 4''):

Nagasaki Medical School is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the Na ...

is opened. Dr. Pompe van Meerdevoort gave the first formal public lecture on medical and surgical sciences at the new school, which became as well the first such lecture to be delivered in any Japanese venue. * 1858–1860 (''Ansei 5-Ansei 7''):

Cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

outbreak is believed to have killed between 100,000 and 200,000 people in

alone. * April 9, 1858 (''Ansei 5''): The

1858 Hietsu earthquake The was a doublet earthquake that took place on April 9, 1858 (according to the old Japanese calendar, February 26, Ansei 5). It most likely occurred on the Atotsugawa and Miboro faults, which connect the Amō Pass in Gifu Prefecture (in the part ...

kills hundreds. * 1858 (''Ansei 5''): The initial establishment of

Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...

, seven years before the beginning of the ''Keio'' era; nevertheless, the university was named after the later era. This is the oldest existing institution of higher learning in Japan. * July 29, 1859 (''Ansei 5''):

Tairō ''Tairō'' (, "great elder") was a high-ranking official position in the Tokugawa shogunate government of Japan, roughly comparable to the office of prime minister. The ''tairō'' presided over the governing ''rōjū'' council in the event of an e ...

Ii Naosuke was ''daimyō'' of Hikone (1850–1860) and also Tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23, 1858, until his death, assassinated in the Sakuradamon Incident on March 24, 1860. He is most famous for signing the Ha ...

signs Japanese-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce (also known as the "Harris Treaty"), which was a follow-up to the 1854

Treaty of Kanagawa The Convention of Kanagawa, also known as the Kanagawa Treaty (, ''Kanagawa Jōyaku'') or the Japan–US Treaty of Peace and Amity (, ''Nichibei Washin Jōyaku''), was a treaty signed between the United States and the Tokugawa Shogunate on March ...

. * 1858 (''Ansei 5''): Beginning of

Ansei Purge was a multi-year event in Japanese history of the Edo period between 1858 and 1860, during which the Tokugawa shogunate imprisoned, executed, or exiled those who did not support its authority and foreign trade policies. The purge was undertaken by ...

at the order of Ii Naosuke on behalf of the

bakufu , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

. * 1860 (''Ansei 7''): Fire at

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established the ...

* March 24, 1860 (''Man'en 1''): Ii Naosuke was assassinated, also known as the " Sakurada-mon Incident"Kusunoki, pp. 52–66; Cullen, p. 184.

Notes

References

* Cullen, Louis M. (2003). ''A History of Japan, 1582–1941: Internal and External Worlds.'' Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

. ;
OCLC 50694793
* Kusunoki Sei'ichirō (1991). ''Nihon shi omoshiro suiri: Nazo no satsujin jiken wo oe''. Tokyo: Futami bunko. * Ozaki, Yukio. (2001). ''The Autobiography of Ozaki Yukio: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan.'' ranslated by Fujiko Hara Princeton:

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

.
OCLC 45363447
* Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). ''Japan Encyclopedia.'' Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

.
OCLC 48943301
* Ponsonby-Fane, Richard A. B. (1956). ''Kyoto: The Old Capital of Japan, 794–1869.'' Kyoto: The Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 559477127
* Satow, Ernest Mason. (1905). ''Japan 1853–1864, Or, Genji Yume Monogatari.'' Tokyo: Naigwai Shuppan Kyokwai
OCLC 643621953
*

External links

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansei Japanese eras 1850s in Japan 1860s in Japan 1854 introductions 1854 establishments in Japan 1860s disestablishments in Japan