Tenmei Kanō
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Japanese era name The or , 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 "", meaning "origin, basis"), followed b ...
(年号, ''nengō'', literally "years name") for the years between the
An'ei was a after '' Meiwa'' and before ''Tenmei.'' This period spanned the years November 1772 through March 1781. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1772 : The era name was changed to ''An'ei'' (meaning "peaceful eternity") to mark ...
Era and before the
Kansei was a after '' Tenmei'' and before '' Kyōwa''. This period spanned the years from January 1789 through February 1801. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1789 : The new era name of '' Kansei'' (meaning "Tolerant Government" or "Broad- ...
Era, from April 1781 through January 1789. The reigning emperor was .


Change of era

* 1781 : The new era name of Tenmei (meaning "dawn") was created to mark the enthronement of Emperor Kōkaku. The previous era ended and the new one commenced on the second day of the fourth month in what had been An'ei 11. As is customary for choosing
nengō The or , 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 "", meaning "origin, basis"), followed b ...
, the name was selected from a passage in a historical Chinese text. In this case, the text was ''
Classic of History The ''Book of Documents'' ( zh, p=Shūjīng, c=書經, w=Shu King) or the ''Classic of History'', is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to figures of ancient China, an ...
'' (書経) (also quoted in '' The Great Learning'' (大學)), more specifically from the first of the King Tai Jia (大甲) chapters. It says: "先王顧諟天之明命..." meaning "The former king kept his eye continually on the bright requirements of Heaven, nd..." This is continued with a description of reverence, virtue, and prosperity for the lands. From this, the two characters 天 and 明 were selected.


Events of the Tenmei Era

* 1782 (Tenmei 2): The Tenmei famine is said to have begun. * 1782 (Tenmei 2): An analysis of silver currency in China and Japan was presented to the Emperor by Minamoto no Masatsuna.Titsingh
p. 420.
/ref> * 1783 (Tenmei 3): erupted in
Shinano province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...
, only 80 miles northwest of Edo, with a loss of life estimated at more than 20,000 (
Tenmei eruption The was a large eruption of Mount Asama that occurred in 1783 (''Tenmei 3''). This eruption was one of the causes of the Tenmei famine. It is estimated that about 1,500–1,624 people were killed in the eruption. The event is known in Japanese ...
). oday, Asama-yama's location is better described as on the border between Gunma Prefecture and Nagano Prefecture]. Japanologist Isaac Titsingh's published account of the Asama-yama eruption became the first of its kind in the West (1820). The volcano's devastation makes the Great Tenmei Famine even worse. Much of the agriculture of
Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...
and
Kōzuke Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Gunma Prefecture. Kōzuke bordered Echigo Province, Echigo, Shinano Province, Shinano, Musashi Province, Musashi and Shimotsuke Province, Shimotsuke Provinces. Its abb ...
remained unproductive or under-producing for the next four or five years. * 1783 (Tenmei 3): Famine was exacerbated, according to 20th-century studies, because after eight years of near- or actual famine, neither the authorities nor the people had any reserves left to meet further drought and crop failures during the Great Tenmei Famine. * 1784 (Tenmei 4): Country-wide celebrations took place in honor of Kōbō-Daishi, founder of
Shingon is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called "Tōmitsu" (東密 lit. "Esoteric uddhismof Tō- ...
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
, who had died 950 years earlier. * 1784 (Tenmei 4): The son of the Shōguns
rōjū The , usually translated as ''Elder (administrative title), Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a wh ...
(chief counselor) was assassinated inside
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 th ...
. The comparatively young ''
wakadoshiyori The ', or "Junior Elders", were high government officials in the Edo period Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). The position was established around 1633, but appointments were irregular until 1662. The four to six ''wakadoshiyori'' we ...
'' (junior counselor) was the son of the senior councilor
Tanuma Okitsugu (September 11, 1719 – August 25, 1788) was a chamberlain (''sobashū'') and a senior counselor ('' rōjū'') to the ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ieharu of the Tokugawa Shogunate, in the Edo period of Japan. Tanuma and his son exercised tremendo ...
. The younger Tanuma was killed in front of his father as both were returning to their ''norimono'' (carriage) after a meeting of the Counselors of State had broken up. The involvement of senior figures in the
Bakufu , officially , was the title of the military rulers 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, except during parts of the Kamak ...
was suspected, but no one other than the lone assassin himself was punished. The result was that the liberalizing reforms that the older Tanuma had initiated were blocked. * September 17, 1786 (Tenmei 6, 25th day of the eighth month): Shōgun
Tokugawa Ieharu Tokugawa Ieharu 徳川 家治 (20 June 1737 – 17 September 1786) was the tenth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office from 1760 to 1786. His childhood name was Takechiyo (竹千代). Ieharu died in 1786 and given the ...
died and was buried in Edo. * 1787 (Tenmei 7):
Tokugawa Ienari Tokugawa Ienari (, 18 November 1773 – 22 March 1841) was the eleventh and longest-serving ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office from 1787 to 1837.Hall, John Whitney ''et al.'' (1991) ''Early Modern Japan'', p. 21./ref> ...
became the 11th
Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers 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, except during parts of the Kamak ...
of the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
. * 1787 (Tenmei 7): Kutsuki Masatsuna published ''Seiyō Senpu'' (Notes on Western Coinage), with plates showing European and colonial currency. * 1788 (Tenmei 7): Riots broke out in rice shops in
Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
and
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
. * 1788 (Tenmei 8): Great Fire of
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
. A fire began in the city at three o'clock in the morning of March 6 (Tenmei 8, 29th day of the first month), and continued to burn uncontrolled until March 8 (first day of the second month). Embers smoldered until they were extinguished by heavy rain on March 11 (fourth day of the second month). The Emperor and his court fled the fire, and the Imperial Palace was destroyed. No other rebuilding was permitted until a new palace was completed. This fire was considered to be a major event. The ''
opperhoofd is a Dutch word (plural ) that literally translates to "upper-head", meaning "supreme headman". The Danish cognate , which is a calque derived from a Danish pronunciation of the Dutch or Low German word, is also treated here. The standard Ge ...
'' of the
VOC VOC, VoC or voc may refer to: Science and technology * Open-circuit voltage (VOC), the voltage between two terminals when there is no external load connected * Variant of concern, a category used during the assessment of a new variant of a virus * ...
'in
Dejima or Deshima, in the 17th century also called , was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan, that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1858). For 220 years, it was the central con ...
noted in his official record book that "people are considering it to be a great and extraordinary heavenly portent".Screech
pp. 152
154, 249–250


Notes


References

* Hall, John Whitney. (1988). ''Early Modern Japan'' (''The Cambridge History of Japan'', Vol. 4). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
.
OCLC 489633115
* __________. (1955). ''Tanuma Okitsugu, 1719–1788: Forerunner of Modern Japan''. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

OCLC 445621
* Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). ''Japan Encyclopedia.'' Cambridge:
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...
.
OCLC 48943301
* Screech, Timon. (2006)
''Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822''.
London:
RoutledgeCurzon Routledge ( ) is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, a ...
.
OCLC 65177072
* __________. (2000). ''Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760–1829''. London : Reaktion.
OCLC 42699671
* Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''
Nihon Ōdai Ichiran , ', is a 17th-century chronicle of the serial reigns of Japanese emperors with brief notes about some of the noteworthy events or other happenings. According to the 1871 edition of the ''American Cyclopaedia'', the 1834 French translation of ...
''; ou
''Annales des empereurs du Japon''.
Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland
OCLC 5850691


External links

*
National Diet Library The is the national library of Japan and among the largest libraries in the world. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the in researching matters of public policy. The library is similar in purpose and scope to ...
, "The Japanese Calendar
-- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection
* National Archives of Japan

*
Toyohara Chikanobu , better known to his contemporaries as , was a Japanese painter and printmaker who was widely regarded as a prolific woodblock artist during the Meiji epoch. Names Chikanobu signed his artwork . This was his . The artist's was ; and it ...
, ''Mirror of the Ages'' (''Jidai Kagami'')
''Tenmei no koro.''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenmei Japanese eras 1780s in Japan 1780s neologisms