Genka calendar

Genka calendar (元嘉暦 Genka-reki), also known as Yuan-chia li, was a Japanese lunisolar calendar (genka reki).^[1] It was used from 604 to 680.^[2]

History

The calendar was created in 425 during the time of China's Southern and Northern Dynasties. It is named after the Genka era in Chinese history.^[3]

The Genka-reki system was brought to Japan from Korea by a Buddhist monk.^[4] The earliest record of this calendar in Japan is in the 10th month of the 10th year of the reign of Empress Suiko (602).^[3]

Dates in the Nihon Shoki before the late 7th century were likely recorded using the Genka calendar system.^[5]

See also

• Japanese calendar
• Sexagenary cycle

References

1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Calendar" in Japan Encyclopedia, pp. 98-99; Reischauer, Robert Karl (1937). Early Japanese history, pp. 140, 162.
2. Nussbaum, "Genka-reki" at p. 238; Bramsen, William. (1880). Japanese chronological tables, p. 25.
3. Japan, Monbushō. (1876). An outline history of Japanese education: prepared for the Philadelphia International Exhibition, 1876, p. 160.
4. Needham, Joseph. (1959). Science and civilisation in China, Mathematics and the sciences of the heavens and the earth, Vol. 3, p. 391 note d.
5. Barnes, Gina Lee. (2007). State Formation in Japan: Emergence of a 4th-Century Ruling Elite, p. 226 n.5.

Further reading

• Charlotte von Verschuer (1985). Les relations officielles du Japon avec la Chine aux VIIIe et IXe siècles (Hachi-kyū-seiki no Nitchū kankei), pp. 243-245 n. 114. (French)

External links

• National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar"