was a after '' Kenji'' and before '' Shōō.'' This period spanned the years from February 1278 through April 1288. The reigning emperors were and .

Change of era

* 1278 : The new era name was created to mark an event or a number of events. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in ''Kenji'' 4. The era name comes from the ''Veritable Records of the

Emperor Taizong of Tang Emperor Taizong of Tang (28January 59810July 649), previously Prince of Qin, personal name Li Shimin, was the second emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, ruling from 626 to 649. He is traditionally regarded as a co-founder of the dynasty fo ...

'' and combines the characters ("broad") and ("peaceful"). It should not be confused with the later Kōan era of 1361–62, which used a different character for ''kō'' (, "peace").

Events of the ''Kōan'' era

* August 15, 1281 (''Kōan 4, 7th day of the intercalary 7th month''):

Battle of Kōan The , also known as the Second Battle of Hakata Bay, was the second attempt by the Mongols, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China to Mongol invasions of Japan, invade Japan after their failed attempt seven years earlier at the Battle of Bun'ei. In t ...

-- The second

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

invasion of Japan is foiled, as a large

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

– famously called a ''

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

'', or divine wind – destroys much of the combined Chinese and Korean fleet and forces, numbering over 140,000 men and 4,000 ships. * November 27, 1287 (''Kōan 10, 21st day of the 10th month''): In the 14th year of Go-Uda''-tennō''s reign (後宇多天皇14年), the emperor abdicated; and the succession (‘‘senso’’) was received by his cousin. Shortly thereafter, Emperor Fushimi is said to have acceded to the throne (‘‘sokui’’).Titsingh, p. 269; Varley, p. 44; a distinct act of ''senso'' is unrecognized prior to

Emperor Tenji , known first as and later as until his accession, was the 38th emperor of Japan who reigned from 668 to 671. He was the son of Emperor Jomei and Empress Kōgyoku (Empress Saimei), and his children included Empress Jitō, Empress Genmei, an ...

; and all sovereigns except

Jitō were medieval territory stewards in Japan, especially in the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates. Appointed by the shōgun, ''jitō'' managed manors, including national holdings governed by the '' kokushi'' or provincial governor. There were als ...

, Yōzei, Go-Toba, and Fushimi have ''senso'' and ''sokui'' in the same year until the reign of

Emperor Go-Murakami (1328 – March 29, 1368) was the 97th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, and a member of the Southern Court during the Nanboku-chō period of rival courts. He reigned from September 18, 1339, until March 29, 13 ...

Notes

References

* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

.
OCLC 58053128
* Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''

Nihon Odai Ichiran Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in t ...

''; 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 Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

.
OCLC 6042764

External links

National Diet Library The is the national library of Japan and among the largest libraries in the world. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the in researching matters of public policy. The library is similar in purpose and scope to ...

, "The Japanese Calendar
-- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection
Japanese eras 1270s in Japan 1280s in Japan 13th-century neologisms {{Japan-era-stub

Change of era

Events of the ''Kōan'' era

See also

Notes

References

External links