Enpō

Enpō (延宝), also Empo, was a Japanese era name (年号,, nengō,, lit. "year name") after Kanbun and before Tenna. This period spanned the years from September 1673 to September 1681. The reigning emperor was Reigen-tennō (霊元天皇).

Change of era

• 1673 Enpō gannen (延宝元年): The new era of Enpō (meaning "Prolonged Wealth") was created to mark a number of disasters including a great fire in Kyōto. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Kanbun 14, on the ninth day of the 13th month.

Events of the Enpō era

• 1673 (Enpō 1): There was a great fire in Heian-kyō.
• 1673 (Enpō 1): The foundations for Mitsui financial success began with the opening of a dry good store in Edo.
• May 10, 1674 (Enpō 2, 5th day of the 4th month): Ingen Ryuki, founder of the Ōbaku sect of Japanese Zen Buddhism, died at Mampuku-ji, a Buddhist temple which Ingen had founded at Uji, near Heian-kyō.
• 1675 (Enpō 3): A devastating fire burned Heian-kyō.
• 1675 (Enpō 3): The Bonin Islands (Ogasawara Islands) are explored by shogunate expedition, following up "discovery" of the islands by the Japanese when a ship bound for Edo from Kyūshū is blown off course by a storm in Kanbun 10. The islands are claimed as a territory of Japan.
• April 7, 1680 (Enpō 8, 8th day of the 3rd month) : Tokugawa Ietsuna, the 4th shogun of the Edo bakufu died; and his named successor, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, was ready to take his place as the 5th Tokugawa shogun.

References

• Hall, John Whitney. (1970). Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times in Delacorte World History, Vol. XX. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-297-00237-6
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Screech, Timon. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 978-0-203-09985-8; OCLC 65177072
• Tanaka, Hiroyuki. (1993). "The Ogasawara Islands in Tokugawa Japan", Kaiji Shi Kenkyuu (Journal of the Maritime History). No. 50, June, 1993, Tokyo: The Japan Society of the History of Maritime.... Click link to digitized, full-text copy of this monograph (in English)
• 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.

External links

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

Preceded by Kanbun

Era or nengō Enpō 1673–1681

Succeeded by Tenna