Tenpyō-hōji

Tenpyō-hōji (天平宝字, Tenpyō-hōji^?) was a Japanese era name (年号, nengō, lit. year name) after Tenpyō-shōhō and before Tenpyō-jingo. This period spanned the years from 757 through 765. The reigning empress was Kōken-tennō (孝謙天皇).^[1]

Change of Era

• Tenpyō-hōji gannen (天平宝字元年; 757): 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 of 757.^[2]

Events of the Tenpyō-hōji Era

• Tenpyō-hōji 1, (757): The new era begins on the on the 2nd day of the 8th month of Tenpyō-shōhō 9.^[3]
• Tenpyō-hōji 4 (760): 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]
• Tenpyō-hōji 9, on the 1st day of the 1st month (765): 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]

References

• Appert, Georges and Hiroshi Kinoshita. (1888). Ancien japon. Tokyo: Kokubunsha.
• Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). [ Jien, 1221], Gukanshō (The Future and the Past, a translation and study of the Gukanshō, an interpretative history of Japan written in 1219). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03460-0
• Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652], Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon, tr. par M. Isaac Titsingh avec l'aide de plusieurs interprètes attachés au comptoir hollandais de Nangasaki; ouvrage re., complété et cor. sur l'original japonais-chinois, accompagné de notes et précédé d'un Aperçu d'histoire mythologique du Japon, par M. J. Klaproth. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.--Two copies of this rare book have now been made available online: (1) from the library of the University of Michigan, digitized January 30, 2007; and (2) from the library of Stanford University, digitized June 23, 2006. Click here to read the original text in French.
• Varley, H. Paul , ed. (1980). [ Kitabatake Chikafusa, 1359], Jinnō Shōtōki ("A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa" translated by H. Paul Varley). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-04940-4

External links

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

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