The Tenji period is a brief span of years during the Asuka period of Japanese history. The Tenji period describes a span of years which were considered to have begun in the 1322nd year of the imperial dynasty.
The timespan is the same as the reign of Emperor Tenji, which is traditionally considered to have been from 662 through 672.
Periodization
The adoption of the Sexagenary cycle calendar (Jikkan JÃ
«nishi) in Japan is attributed to Empress Suiko in 604; and this Chinese calendar continued in use throughout the Tenji period.
In 645, the system of was introduced. However, after the reign of Emperor Kotoku, this method of segmenting was temporarily abandoned or allowed to lapse. This interval continued during the Tenji period.
Neither the years of Emperor Tenji's reign nor the Tenji period are included in the list nengÃ
 for this explicit duration of time, which comes after Hakuchi and before SuchÃ
Â.
In the post-Taika or pre-TaihÃ
 chronology, the first year of Emperor Tenji's reign (天æÂºå¤©çÂÂÃ¥Â
Âå¹´ or 天æÂºå¤©çÂÂ1å¹´) is also construed as the first year of the Tenji period (天æÂº1å¹´).
Non-nengÃ
 period
Non-nengÃ
 periods in the pre-TaihÃ
 calendar were published in 1880 by William Bramsen. These were refined in 1952 by Paul Tuschihashi in Japanese Chronological Tables from 601 to 1872.
The pre-TahiÃ
 calendar included two non-nengÃ
 gaps or intervals in the chronological series:
*Taika, August 645–February 650.
*Hakuchi, February 650–December 654.
**Non-nengÃ
 dating systems
*ShuchÃ
Â, July–September 686.
**Non-nengÃ
 dating systems
*TaihÃ
Â, March 701–May 704.
NengÃ
 were not promulgated (or were allowed to lapse) during the gap years between Hakuchi and ShuchÃ
Â, and in another gap between ShuchÃ
 and TaihÃ
Â.
Events of the Tenji period
- 662 (Tenji 1): Empress Saimei dies; and her nephew delays receiving the succession (senso). Only years later does Emperor Tenji formally accede to the throne (sokui).
- 662 (Tenji 1): A new chronological time frame is marked by the beginning of the reign of Emperor Tenji
- 667 (Tenji 6): Six years after the death of Empress Saimei, her mausoleum was reconstructed. Naka no Ã
Âe-shinnÃ
 had not yet been proclaimed as Emperor Tenji, which meant that he had not yet begun to create an official court around himself. In this year, he did at last establish his court at Ã
Âtsu-no-Miya in the Ã
Âmi Province, where his enthronement was belatedly scheduled for the springtime of the following year.
- 668 (Tenji 7): Emperor Tenji is formally enthroned.
See also
Notes
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 IchirÃ
 Ishida, eds. (1979). GukanshÃ
Â: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. ; 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. ; 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). . Tokyo: Sophia University. OCLC 001291275
- Varley, H. Paul. (1980). A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: JinnÃ
 ShÃ
ÂtÃ
Âki of Kitabatake Chikafusa. New York: Columbia University Press. ; OCLC 6042764
- Zöllner, Reinhard. (2003). Japanische Zeitrechnung: ein Handbuch Munich: Iudicium Verlag. ; OCLC 249297777
External links