Kansei
Kansei (寛政) was a Japanese era name (年号,, nengō,, lit. "year name") after Tenmei and before Kyōwa. This period spanned the years from 1789 through 1801. The reigning emperor was Kōkaku-tennō (光格天皇).
Change of era
- 1789 Kansei gannen (寛政元年): The new era name of Kansei (meaning "Tolerant Government" or "Broad-minded Government") was created to mark a number of calamities including a devastating fire at the Imperial Palace. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Tenmei 9, on the 25th day of the 1st month.
Events of the Kansei era
The broad panoply of changes and new initiatives of the Tokugawa shogunate during this era became known as the Kansei Reforms.
Matsudaira Sadanobu (1759-1929) was named the shogun's chief councilor (rōjū) in the summer of 1787; and early in the next year, he became the regent for the 11th shogun, Tokugawa Ienari.[1] As the chief administrative decision-maker in the bakufuan hierarchy, he was in a position to effect radical change; and his initial actions represented an aggressive break with the recent past. Sadanobu's efforts were focused on strengthening the Edo government by reversing many of the policies and practices which had become commonplace under the regime of the previous shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu. These reform policies could be interpreted as a reactionary response to the excesses of his rōjū predecessor, Tanuma Okitsugu (1719-1788);[2] and the result was that Tanuma-initiated, liberalizing reforms within the bakufu and relaxing the strictures of sakoku (Japan's "closed-door policy of excluding all foreigners) were reversed or blocked.[3]
- 1790 (Kansei 2): The shogunate issues an edict addressed to Hayashi Kinpō, the rector of the Edo Confucian Academy -- "The Kansei Prohibition of Heterodox Studies" (kansei igaku no kin).[4]
- 1798 (Kansei 10): Kansei Calendar Revision
Notes
- ^ Totman, Conrad. Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988, p. 224
- ^ Hall, J. (1955). Tanuma Okitsugu: Forerunner of Modern Japan, 1719-1788. pp. 131-142.
- ^ Screech, T. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822, pp. 148-151, 163-170, 248.
- ^ Nosco, Peter. (1997). Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture, p. 20.
References
- Hall, John Whitney. (1955). Tanuma Okitsugu: Forerunner of Modern Japan, 1719-1788. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Screech, Timon. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-7007-1720-X
- Totman, Conrad. (1967). Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600-1843. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-6746-8800-7 [reprinted by University of California Press, Berkely, 1988. ISBN 0-5200-6313-9]
- Nosco, Peter. (1997). Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1865-2
External links
- National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection
| Kansei | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th |
| Gregorian | 1789 | 1790 | 1791 | 1792 | 1793 | 1794 | 1795 | 1796 | 1797 | 1798 | 1799 | 1800 | 1801 |
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