Eishō (Heian period)

Eishō (永承) was a Japanese era name (年号, nengō,, lit. "year name") after Kantoku and before Tengi. This period spanned the years from April 1046 through January 1053.^[1] The reigning emperor was Go-Reizei-tennō (後冷泉天皇).^[2]

Change of Era

• 1046 Eishō gannen (永承元年): The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in Kantoku 3, onteh 14th day of the 4th month of 1046.^[3]

Events of the Eishō Era

• 1046 (Eishō 1): Minamoto no Yorinobu wrote about the spirit of Emperor Ojin and worshiping him as a manifestation of Iwashimizu Hachiman and as one of Yorinobu's ancestors.^[4]
• 1048 (Eishō 3): Yorinobu died at the age of 81.^[5]
• 1051 (Eishō 6): In Michinoku, Abe no Sadatō and Munetō instigate a rebellion which becomes known as the Nine Years' War (1051–1062) because, even though the period of strife lasts for 11 years, the actual fighting lasts for nine years. In response, Minamoto no Yoriyoshi is appointed governor of Mutsu and he is named chinjufu shōgun. He is given these titles and powers so that he will be able to restore peace in the north. Yoriyoshi would have been the first to receive this specific shogunal title, although his grandfather (Minamoto no Tsunemoto) had been seitō fuku-shōgun (assistant commander for pacification of the east).^[6]

The eleventh reconstruction of the Kasuga Shrine in Nara was completed during this era.^[7]

Notes

1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Eishō" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 172, p. 172, at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File.
2. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 162-166; Brown, Delmer et al. (1979). Gukanshō, pp. 311-314; ; Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki. p. 197-198.
3. Brown, p. 313.
4. Visser, Marinus Willem. (1935). Ancient Buddhism in Japan: Sūtras and Ceremonies in Use in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries A.D. and their History in Later Times, p. 233.
5. Hisamatsu, Senʼichi. (1970). Murasaki Shikibu: the Greatest Lady Writer in Japanese literature, p. 146, citing Nippon Bunkashi Nempyō
6. Varley, pp. 197-198.
7. Gapard, Allan G. (1992). The Protocol of the Gods: a Study of the Kasuga Cult in Japanese History, p. 142 at Google Books

References

• 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