era

The Ashikaga Shogunate The Muromachi shogunate (1338-1573) was the second of Japan's three military regimes (幕府, bakufu), following the Kamakura shogunate (1192-1333) and preceding the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). Established by Ashikaga Takauji (足利尊氏, 1305-1358), its name derives from the...

The Kamakura Period (鎌倉時代 Kamakura jidai, 1185-1333) is the historical period that corresponds to the rule of the Kamakura shōgun. It is named after Kamakura, where the shogunal government was located. While 1333 - the year in which the Kamakura shogunate was destroyed - is the undisputed end...

Japanese Era Timeline courtesy of Buntaro An overview of the historical periods of Japan Jōmon Period (ca 11000 BCE-ca 300 BCE) Yayoi Period (300 BCE to ca 300 CE) Kofun Period (300 to ca 538 CE) Asuka Period (ca 250-710 CE) Nara Period (710-794) Heian Period (794-1185) [II] [III] Kamakura...

Warring States Period (1467-1568) The Sengoku Period (戦国時代) lasted from 1467, the beginning of the Ōnin War (応仁の乱 Ōnin no Ran), until 1568, the year Oda Nobunaga entered Kyōto to assert national hegemony. Other historians set the end at 1573, the end of the Muromachi period, or even around 1603...

The Kofun Period (古墳時代 Kofun jidai) refers to the protohistoric period of Japan, usually dated from 250 to ca 538 CE, characterised by the construction of large tumuli or tomb mounds (古墳 kofun). It is generally divided into two phases: early (4th century) and late 5th and 6th centuries. The...

Heian Period (794-1185) Heian Period (Part 1): Heiankyō, institutions, politics and government Heian Period (Part 2): land tenure Heian Period (Part 3): cultural life, religion, literature, art Heian Cultural Life While most historians regard the political and economic developments of the...

Heian Period (794-1185) Heian Period (Part 1): Heiankyō, institutions, politics and government Heian Period (Part 2): land tenure Heian Period (Part 3): cultural life, religion, literature, art Heian land tenure In the mid-seventh century, the ruling family in Yamato maintained an unstable...

Heian Period (794-1185) Heian Period (Part 1): Heiankyō, institutions, politics and government Heian Period (Part 2): land tenure Heian Period (Part 3): cultural life, religion, literature, art The Heian Period (平安時代 Heian jidai) spans almost 400 years from 794, when Emperor Kammu...

Nara Period (710-784) The Nara Period (奈良時代 Nara jidai) is the historical period beginning in 710, the year the capital was moved from Fujiwarakyō to Heijōkyō (the modern-day city of Nara), and ending in 784 when the capital was moved to Nagaokakyō. The ten years at Nagaokakyō (784-794) are...

The Asuka Period (飛鳥時代 Asuka jidai) is defined as a subdivision of the Yamato Period (ca 250-710 CE) or – by other accounts – as the Late Kofun Period, variously dated but centred in the reign (593-628) of Empress Suiko (推古天皇 Suiko-tennō, 554-628), the first of Japan’s eight empress regnant...

The Yamato court (大和朝廷 Yamato chōtei) was the centre of the archaic Japanese polity (ca 4th-ca mid-7th centuries), situated in Yamato (modern-day Nara Prefecture). The term is used in distinction to the centralised bureaucratic Yamato state that came into being with the Taika Reforms (大化の改新...

The Yayoi period (弥生時代 Yayoi jidai) is a prehistoric period of Japan, usually dated from 300 BCE to ca 300 CE, during which wet-rice agriculture and the use of bronze and iron first appeared in Japan. Yayoi refers to certain characteristic pottery discovered in the Yayoi quarter of Bunkyō Ward...

The Jomon Period (縄文時代 Jōmon jidai, ca 11000 BCE-ca 300 BCE) is generally identified with hunting and gathering ways of life, especially the intense utilisation of marine resources in shellfish collecting and deep-sea fishing. The name of this period derives from the jōmon (cord-markings) that...

The Taishō era (大正時代, lit. “Great Righteousness”, 1912-1926) is the period of the Taishō Emperor‘s reign. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic clique of “elder statesmen” (genrō) to the parliament and the democratic parties...

Overview The Abolition of Feudalism Meiji Institutions The Meiji Constitution of 1889 The Russo-Japanese War and Japan's Great Power Status The Meiji period (明治時代), which lasted from 1868 to 1912, marked one of the most transformative eras in Japanese history, coinciding with the collapse of...