Ryakuō

Period of Japanese history (1338–1342)

Ryakuō (暦応) was a Japanese era of the Northern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts,^[1] after Kenmu and before Kōei, lasting from August 1338 to April 1342.^[2] The emperor in Kyoto was Emperor Kōmyō (光明天皇, Kōmyō-tennō).^[3] Go-Kōgon's Southern Court rival in Yoshino during this time-frame was Emperor Go-Murakami (後村上天皇, Go-Murakami-tennō).

Nanboku-chō overview

The Imperial seats during the Nanboku-chō period were in relatively close proximity, but geographically distinct. They were conventionally identified as:

• Northern capital : Kyoto
• Southern capital : Yoshino.

During the Meiji period, an Imperial decree dated March 3, 1911 established that the legitimate reigning monarchs of this period were the direct descendants of Emperor Go-Daigo through Emperor Go-Murakami, whose Southern Court (南朝, nanchō) had been established in exile in Yoshino, near Nara.^[4]

Until the end of the Edo period, the militarily superior pretender-Emperors supported by the Ashikaga shogunate had been mistakenly incorporated in Imperial chronologies despite the undisputed fact that the Imperial Regalia were not in their possession.^[4]

This illegitimate Northern Court (北朝, hokuchō) had been established in Kyoto by Ashikaga Takauji.^[4]

Change of era

• 1338 Ryakuō gannen (暦応元年): The era name was changed to Ryakuō to mark an event or a number of events. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Kenmu 5.^[5]

Events of the Ryakuō Era

• 1340 (Ryakuō 3): Observations of the "broom star" (comet) are recorded.^[6]

Southern Court Equivalents

• Engen, Kōkoku

Notes

1. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 294-296.
2. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Ryakuō" in Japan encyclopedia, p. 796; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File Archived 2012-05-24 at archive.today.
3. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 294-297; Nussbaum, p. 541.
4. Thomas, Julia Adeney. (2001). Reconfiguring modernity: concepts of nature in Japanese political ideology, p. 199 n57, citing Mehl, Margaret. (1997). History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan. p. 140-147.
5. Titsingh, p. 294.
6. Pankenier, David. (1999). Archaeoastronomy in East Asia: Historical Observational Records of Comets and Meteor Showers from China, Japan, and Korea, p. 164., p. 164, at Google Books

References

• Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
• 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

External links

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