Kennin

Kennin (建仁) was a Japanese era name (年号,, nengō,, lit. "year name") after Shōji and before Genkyū. This period spanned the years from February 1201 through February 1204.[1] The reigning emperor was Tsuchimikado-tennō (土御門天皇).[2]

Change of era

• 1201 Kennin gannen (建仁元年); 1201: The new era name was created to mark an event of shin'yū (辛酉), which is considered as the year of revolution in Sexagenary cycle. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Shōji 3, on the 13th day of the 2nd month of 1201.[3]

Events of the Kennin era

• 1202 (Kennin 2, 1st month): Nitta Yoshishige, the deputy director for cuisine of Dairi (大炊助) in Daijō-kan, died. His court rank had been of the second rank of the fifth class (従五位下).[4]
• 1202 (Kennin 2, 7th month): Minamoto no Yoriie was raised in the court's hierarchic standing to the second rank of the second class; and he was created the 2nd shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate.[4]
• 1202 (Kennin 2, 10th month): Naidaijin Minamoto no Michichika died at 54; and his court position was then filled by dainagon Fujiwara no Takatada.[4]
• 1202 (Kennin 2): On orders from Shōgun Minamoto no Yoriie, the monk Eisai founded Kennin-ji, a Zen temple and monastery in the Rinzai sect.[5]
• 1203 (Kennin 3, 8th month): Shōgun Yoriie fell gravely ill.[4]
• 1203 (Kennin 3, 9th month): Yoriie shaved his head and became a Buddhist priest; and the emperor named Minamoto no Sanetomo as the 3rd shōgun; and Hōjō Tokimasa became Sanetomo's shikken (regent).[6]

Notes

1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Kennin" in Japan encyclopedia, p. 509; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File Archived 2012-05-24 at Archive.today.
2. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 221-227; Brown, Delmer et al. (1979). Gukanshō, p. 340; Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki, pp. 220-221.
3. Brown, p. 340.
4. Titsingh, p. 225.
5. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Kennin-ji" in Japan encyclopedia, p. 509.
6. Titsingh, p. 226.

References

• Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida. (1979). 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 978-0-520-03460-0; OCLC 5145872
• Kitagawa, Hiroshi and Bruce T. Tsuchida, eds. (1975). The Tale of the Heike. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. ISBN 9784130870245; ISBN 9784130870238; ISBN 9780860081883; ISBN 9780860081890; OCLC 193064639
• 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

Preceded by Shōji	Era or nengō Kennin 1201–1204	Succeeded by Genkyū