Jitō period

The Jitō period is a chronological timeframe during the Asuka period of Japanese history. The Jitō period describes a span of years which were considered to have begun in the 1347th year of the Yamato dynasty.^[1]

This periodization is congruent with the reign of Empress Jitō, which is traditionally considered to have been from 686 through 697.^[2]

Periodization

The adoption of the Sexagenary cycle calendar (Jikkan Jūnishi) in Japan is attributed to Empress Suiko in 604;^[3] and this Chinese calendar continued in use throughout the Jitō period.

In 645, the system of Japanese era names (年号 nengō, "year name") was introduced.^[4] However, after the reign of Emperor Kōtoku, this method of segmenting time was temporarily abandoned or allowed to lapse. This interval continued during the Jitō period.

Neither Empress Jitō's reign nor the Jitō periodization are included in the list of nengō for this explicit duration of time, which comes after Suchō and before Taihō.

In the post-Taika or pre-Taihō chronology, the first year of Empress Jitō's reign (持統天皇元年 or 斉持統皇1年) is also construed as the first year of the Jitō period (持統1年).^[5]

Non-nengō period

Non-nengō periods in the pre-Taihō calendar were published in 1880 by William Bramsen.^[1] These were refined in 1952 by Paul Tsuchihashi in Japanese Chronological Tables from 601 to 1872.^[5]

The pre-Tahiō calendar included two non-nengō gaps or intervals in the chronological series:

• Taika, August 645–February 650.^[6]
• Hakuchi, February 650–December 654.^[7]
  • Non-nengō dating systems
• Shuchō, July–September 686.^[8]
  • Non-nengō dating systems
• Taihō, March 701–May 704.^[6]

Nengō were not promulgated (or were allowed to lapse) during the gap years between Hakuchi and Shuchō, and in another gap between Shuchō and Taihō.

Concurrent Chronologies
Non-nengō periods	Nengō eras	Shinengō[9]	Yamato dynasty duration	Western calendar dates
	Taika[6]		1305	645[10]
	Hakuchi[7]		1310	650[11]
Saimei's reign[1]			1315	655[12]
Tenji's reign[1]			1322	662[13]
Kōbun's reign[14]		Sujaku[15]	1332[1]	672[16]
Temmu's reign		Hakuhō[17]	1333[1]	673[18]
	Suchō[8]		1346	686[19]
Jitō's reign[1]			1347	687[20]
		Taika[21]	1350	695[21]
Mommu's reign[1]			1357	697[22]
	Taihō[6]		1361	701[23]

Events of the Jitō period

• 686 (Jitō 1): Emperor Temmu dies, but his son and heir was deemed too young to receive the succession (senso). Instead, the mother of the heir succeeds the Chrysanthemum Throne (senso) as Empress Jitō until her son would grow mature enough to accept senso and sokui.^[24]
• 686 (Jitō1): A new period is marked by the beginning of the reign of Empress Jitō, but the end of the previous nengō Hakuchi 6 (654) does not imply the commencement of a new nengō in the succeeding reigns.
• 688 (Jitō 3): Prince Kusakabe, Empress Jitō's son, dies at age of 27.
• 689 (Jitō 4): Empress Jitō formally accedes to the Chrysanthemum Throne (sokui) on the first month, first day.
• 697 (Jitō 11): Prince Karu, the Empress' grandson, is made the Heir Apparent on the second month, 16th day. The Empress gets sick. She abdicates the Chrysanthemum Throne in favor of Prince Karu on the eighth month, first day.

Empress Jitō distributed rice to the aged throughout the years of her reign.^[25]

Jitō period	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th
Gregorian	686	687	688	687	689	690	691	692	693	694	695	696	697

See also

• Regnal name
• List of Japanese era names

Notes

1. Murray, David. (1894). The Story of Japan, p. 402, p. 402, at Google Books, citing William Bramsen. (1880). Japanese Chronological Tables, pp. 54-55, p. 54, at Google Books; compare, the Japanese National Diet Library website explains that "Japan organized its first calendar in the 12th year of Suiko (604)", which was a pre-nengō time frame.
2. Murray, p. 402, p. 402, at Google Books; the system of counting from year-periods (nengō) do not ordinarily overlap with the reigns of the early monarchs; and generally, a new one was chosen whenever it was deemed necessary to commemorate an auspicious or ward off a malign event.
3. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Jikkan Jūnishi" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 420, p. 420, at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File
4. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du Japon, p. 30., p. 30, at Google Books
5. Tsuchihashi, Paul. (1952). Japanese Chronological Tables from 601 to 1872, p. 16.
6. Nussbaum, "Taika" at p. 924, p. 924, at Google Books
7. Nussbaum, "Hakuchi" at p. 280, p. 280, at Google Books.
8. Nussbaum, "Shuchō" at p. 889, p. 889, at Google Books.
9. Shinengō used prior to the reestablishment of the nengō system in 701 are usually called itsunengō (逸年号). A list of shinengō and more information can be seen in the Japanese Wikipedia page ja:私年号.
10. NengoCalc (645) 大化 Taika, online conversion of Japanese dates into their Western equivalents; calculation is based on tables from Tsuchihashi and Zöllner.
11. NengoCalc (650) 白雉 Hakuchi
12. NengoCalc (655) 斉明 Saimei
13. NengoCalc (622) 天智 Tenji
14. Brown, Delmer M. et al. (1979). Gukanshō, p. 268 n39., p. 268, at Google Books; post-Meiji historians position the reign of Emperor Kōbun between the reigns of Emperor Tenji and Emperor Temmu, but pre-Meiji historians did not construe Prince Ōtomo in the traditional order of succession; compare Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan, p. 52; and see Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō): 天智天皇 (38)
15. Murray, p. 402, p. 402, at Google Books; Sujaku is also known as an Itsunengō (逸年号)
16. NengoCalc (672) 弘文 Kōbun
17. Murray, p. 402, p. 402, at Google Books; Hakuhō, also known as Itsunengō; compare Nussbaum, "Hakuhō" at p. 280, p. 280, at Google Books; Hakuhou jidai, JAANUS (Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System), 2001; retrieved 16 September 2009.
18. NengoCalc (673) 弘文 Temmu
19. NengoCalc (686) 朱鳥 Suchō
20. NengoCalc (687) 持統 Jitō
21. Brown, p. 270, p. 270, at Google Books; excerpt, "The eras that fell in this reign were: (1) the remaining seven years of Shuchō [(686+7=692?)]; and (2) Taika, which was four years long [695-698]. (The first year of this era was kinoto-hitsuji [695].) ...In the third year of the Taka era [697], Empress Jitō yielded the throne to the Crown Prince."
22. NengoCalc (697) 文武 Mommu
23. NengoCalc (701) 大宝 Taihō
24. Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki, p. 44; a distinct act of senso is unrecognized prior to Emperor Tenji; and all sovereigns except Jitō, Yōzei, Go-Toba, and Fushimi have senso and sokui in the same year until the reign of Emperor Go-Murakami.
25. Titsingh, Annales des empereurs du Japon, p. 60., p. 60, at Google Books

References

• Bramsen, William. (1880). Japanese Chronological Tables: Showing the Date, According to the Julian or Gregorian Calendar, of the First Day of Each Japanese Month, from Tai-kwa 1st year to Mei-ji 6th year (645 AD to 1873 AD): with an Introductory Essay on Japanese Chronology and Calendars. Tokyo: Seishi Bunsha. OCLC 35728014
• Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; OCLC 251325323
• Murray, David. (1894). The Story of Japan. New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC 1016340
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887
• 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
• Tsuchihashi, Paul Yashita, S.J. (1952). Japanese chronological tables from 601 to 1872 (邦曆西曆對照表: 自推古九年至明治五年 Hōreki seireki taishōhyō: Suiko kyūnen yori Meiji gonen ni itaru). Tokyo: Sophia University. OCLC 001291275
• Varley, H. Paul. (1980). A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-04940-5; OCLC 6042764
• Zöllner, Reinhard. (2003). Japanische Zeitrechnung: ein Handbuch Munich: Iudicium Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89129-783-4; OCLC 249297777

External links

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