was a during the reign of
Kōtoku.
[Tisingh, Isaac. (1834). ] The Taika era immediately preceded the ''
Hakuchi era.'' This period spanned the years from August 645 through February 650.
[Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Taika''" in ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ''see']
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File
History
In 645, also known as , the new era name was created to mark the beginning of the reign of the emperor
Kōtoku. The previous reign ended and the new one commenced in the fourth year after the beginning of
Empress Kōgyoku's reign.
In Japan, this was the first
nengō
The , also known as , is the first of the two elements that identify years in the Japanese era calendar scheme. The second element is a number which indicates the year number within the era (with the first year being ""), followed by the literal ...
, derived from the
Chinese system of eras (''
nianhao'');
although some scholarly doubt has been cast on the authenticity of ''Taika'' and ''Hakuchi'' as historically legitimate era names.
Timeline
The system of Japanese era names was not the same as
Imperial reign dates.
Events of the ''Taika'' era
* 645 (''Taika 1''): Empress Kōgyoku abdicates; and her brother receives the succession (''senso''). Shortly thereafter, Emperor Kōtoku formally accedes to the throne (''sokui'').
* 645 (''Taika 1''): Kōtoku introduces the . The ideas and goals of this were memorialized in a series of articles which formally bore the imprimatur of the emperor. Kōtoku officially divided Japan into eight provinces. The Taika reforms also sought to regulate the rank of government officials who were to be distinguished by 19 sorts of official hats or caps with differing forms and different colors according to a very strictly-defined hierarchy.
[Titsingh]
p. 48.
/ref>
* 645 (''Taika 1''): Kōtoku decides to abandon Asuka, which had been the capital city up to this time. Instead, he transferred the capital to Naniwa, which is in the general vicinity of the Bay of Osaka. In this new location, Kōtoku centralized his power without further delay. Kōtoku lived in a palace which had been newly constructed for him on a promontory. The name of this palace was Toyosaki-no-Miya. The palace was at Nagara, in the general area of Naniwa in Settsu province
was a province of Japan, which today comprises the southeastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or .
Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province. Most of Setts ...
.
* 646 (''Taika 2, 1st day of the 1st month''): Kōtoku established a regular calendar for the court, with major audiences scheduled only on certain days. The emperor also addressed a number of matters which would affect all parts of Japan—as for example, creating judicial districts, establishing guard posts on major roads, arranging for postal relay systems, dividing the country in governable units with separations following the natural boundaries created by mountains and rivers, appointing governors for each province, and fixing the amounts porters might be able to charge. Kōtoku named the chiefs in the districts and the villages; and for the first time, it became possible to register the number of houses and the numbers of people in each location, the taxes to be exacted from each area and the varying products from throughout the land. He also mandated that from every hundred households, one beautiful young woman should be sent for service in the palace household. He arranged that in each year, an officer from the central court should be sent to each province to examine the conduct of the governors and their government. The emperor also initiated plans for building storehouses of goods and arsenals which would serve the needs of a national army or militia.udaijin
was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods. The position was consolidated in the Taihō Code of 702. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the initial appearance of the ''udaijin'' in the context of a central administ ...
'' Sogo Yamada Ishikawa Maro was specifically charged with the task of planning so that all the faults that could be attributed to mistakes of government would not happen—or could be mitigated. This was also a time in which the greater part of the rules of etiquette and customs of the court were revised or contrived. Naka-no Ōe''-shinnō (imperial prince of a shinnōke
was the collective name for the four cadet branches of the Imperial family of Japan, which were until 1947 entitled to provide a successor to the Chrysanthemum throne if the main line failed to produce an heir. The heads of these royal houses ...
'' and the ''sesshō'' Nakatomi no Kamatari counseled these and other measures intended to make Japan a better and stronger country.[Brown, p. 266; Titsingh]
p. 49.
/ref>
* 649 (''Taika 5,7th day of the third month''): The '' sadaijin'' Abe no Kurahashi Maro
Abe or ABE may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Shinzo Abe (1954–2022), former Prime Minister of Japan
* Abe (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname
* Abe (surname), a list of people and ...
died.[Brown, p. 266.]
* 649 (''Taika 5, 3rd month''): Sogo-no Kiyouga, the younger brother of the ''udaijin'' Soga Yamada Ishikawa Maro Soga may refer to:
People
* Soga clan, a Japanese clan of the Yamato period
* Soga clan (Sagami Province), a Japanese clan
* Soga people, of the Busoga kingdom in present-day Uganda
* Machiko Soga, Japanese voice actress
* Soga Tokimune, Japan ...
, informed the emperor that his older brother was involved in a conspiracy against the emperor. On the basis of this information, Kōtoku sent men to the ''udaijin''s home with plans to put the traitor to death. Yamada somehow learned about this in advance, and he then decided to kill himself. Shortly thereafter, after Yamada's innocence had been proven, the surviving brother, Kiyouga, was punished. For his part in misleading the emperor and in causing the ''udaijin'' to kill himself, Kiyouga was exiled to Tokachi on the northern island of Hokkaidō, which was a largely unpopulated wilderness at that time.Kose no Toko no Ō-omi
Kose is a small borough ( et, alevik) in Harju County, 39 kilometers (24 miles) southeast of Tallinn, Estonia. It is the administrative centre of Kose Parish and lies next to Pirita River.
At the 2011 Census, the settlement's population wa ...
(593-658) was named ''sadaijin'' shortly after his predecessor died.Nagato province
, often called , was a province of Japan. It was at the extreme western end of Honshū, in the area that is today Yamaguchi Prefecture. Nagato bordered on Iwami and Suō Provinces.
History
Although the ancient capital of the province was Shimono ...
brought a white pheasant to the court as a gift for the emperor. This white pheasant was then construed as a good omen. Emperor Kōtoku was extraordinarily pleased by this special avian rarity, and he wanted the entire court to see this white bird for themselves. He commanded a special audience in which he could formally invite the ''sadaijin'' and the ''udaijin'' to join him in admiring the rare bird; and on this occasion, the emperor caused the nengō
The , also known as , is the first of the two elements that identify years in the Japanese era calendar scheme. The second element is a number which indicates the year number within the era (with the first year being ""), followed by the literal ...
to be changed to Hakuchi (meaning "white pheasant").[Titsingh]
p. 49.
/ref>
Notes
References
* Bialock, David T. (2007). ''Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories: Narrative, Ritual, and Royal Authority from the Chronicles of Japan to the Tale of the Heike.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press.
OCLC 237216457
* Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979)
''Gukanshō: The Future and the Past.''
Berkeley: University of California Press.
OCLC 251325323
* 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 retir ...
.
OCLC 58053128
* Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). '' Nihon Odai Ichiran''; ou
''Annales des empereurs du Japon.''
Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland
OCLC 5850691
* Varley, H. Paul. (1980). ''A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa.'' New York: Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
.
OCLC 6042764
External links
* National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar
-- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taika
Japanese eras
645 beginnings
7th century in Japan
650 endings