Tenpyō-hōji

Tenpyō-hōji (天平宝字) was a Japanese era name (年号, nengō,, lit. "year name") after Tenpyō-shōhō and before Tenpyō-jingo. This period spanned the years from August 757 through January 765.^[1] The reigning Emperor was Junnin-tennō (淳仁天皇), who was a mere figurehead while authority was in the hands of Fujiwara no Nakamaro and during the later years of the era increasingly with retired Empress Kōken and the monk Dōkyō.

Change of era

• 757 Tenpyō-hōji gannen (天平宝字元年)): The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in Tenpyō-shōhō 9, on the 2nd day of the 8th month.^[2]

Events of the Tenpyō-hōji era

• 757 (Tenpyō-hōji 1'): The new era begins on the 2nd day of the 8th month of Tenpyō-shōhō 9.^[3]
• 760 (Tenpyō-hōji 4): Additional coins were put into circulation – each copper coin bearing the words Mannen Ten-hō, each silver coin bearing the words Teihei Genhō, and each gold coin bearing the words Kaiki Shōhō.^[4]
• 764: Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion
• January 26, 765 (Tenpyō-hōji 9, 1st day of the 1st month): In the 6th year of Junnin-tennō 's reign (淳仁天皇6年), the emperor was deposed by his adoptive mother; and the succession (senso) was received by former-Empress Kōken. Shortly thereafter, Empress Shōtoku is said to have acceded to the throne (sokui).^[5]

Notes

1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Tenpyō-hōji" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 957, p. 957, at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File.
2. Brown, p. 274.
3. Brown, p. 274; Shoku Nihongi records the date as the 18th day of the 8th month of Tenpyō-shōhō 9.
4. Appert, Georges et al. (1888). Ancien japon, pp. 29-30.
5. Brown, pp. 276; Varley, p. 44, 145.

References

• Appert, Georges and Hiroshi Kinoshita. (1888). Ancien japon. Tokyo: Kokubunsha. OCLC 458497085
• 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
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; 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. ISBN 9780231049405; OCLC 6042764

External links

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