Tenju (天授) was a
Japanese era name
The or , is the first of the two elements that identify years in the Japanese era calendar scheme. The second element is a number which indicates the year number within the era (with the first year being "", meaning "origin, basis"), followed b ...
(年号, ''nengō'', lit. year name) of the
Southern Court during the
Era of Northern and Southern Courts after
Bunchū and before
Kōwa. This period spanned the years from May 1375 to February 1381. The
Southern Court emperor in Yoshino during this time-frame was . The
Northern court
The , also known as the Ashikaga Pretenders or Northern Pretenders, were a set of six pretenders to the throne of Japan during the Nanboku-chō period from 1336 through 1392. Even though the present Imperial House of Japan is descended from the ...
emperor in Kyoto was .
Nanboku-chō overview

During the
Meiji period
The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
, an Imperial decree dated March 3, 1911 established that the legitimate reigning monarchs of this period were the direct descendants of
Emperor Go-Daigo through
Emperor Go-Murakami, whose had been established in exile in
Yoshino, near Nara.
[Thomas, Julia Adeney. (2001)]
''Reconfiguring modernity: concepts of nature in Japanese political ideology'', p. 199 n57
citing Mehl, Margaret. (1997). ''History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan.'' p. 140-147.
Until the end of the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, the militarily superior pretender-Emperors supported by the
Ashikaga shogunate had been mistakenly incorporated in Imperial chronologies despite the undisputed fact that the
Imperial Regalia were not in their possession.
This illegitimate had been established in
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
by
Ashikaga Takauji
also known as Minamoto no Takauji was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate."Ashikaga Takauji" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. ...
.
Change of era
* 1375, also called : The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in ''Bunchū'' 4.
In this time frame,
Eiwa (1375–1379) and
Kōryaku (1379–1381) were the Northern Court equivalent ''nengō.''
Events of the Tenju Era
* 1375 (''Tenju 1''): Shōgun
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu visits the
Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū where he worships publicly; and he offers a sword for the shrine's treasury, gold foil for the embellishment of the shrine, and a racehorses for the shrine's stable.
[Titsingh, p. 312.]
* 1375 (''Tenju 2''): For the first time, Shōgun Yoshimitsu is permitted to enter the precincts of the Imperial quarters at the Imperial palace in Kyoto.
* 1377 (''Tenju 2''):
Goryeo
Goryeo (; ) was a Korean state founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korea, Korean Peninsula until the establishment of Joseon in 1392. Goryeo achieved what has b ...
diplomatic envoy
Chŏng Mong-ju met with the in Kyūshū,
Imagawa Ryōshun. The objective of this diplomatic mission was to begin negotiating steps to control pirates (''wakō'').
* 1378 (''Tenju 4''): Yoshimitsu moves into his new home in Muromachi; and the luxurious house and grounds are called ''Hana-no-Gosho''
[Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982) ''Lessons from History: The "Tokushi Yoron"'', p. 329.]
* 1379 (''Tenju 5''):
Shiba Yoshimasa
was a Japanese samurai lord and daimyo during the Muromachi period.
Biography
Yoshimasa was the son of Shiba Takatsune. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Shiba Yoshimasa"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 850.
During the Ashikaga shogunate, Yosh ...
becomes ''
Kanrei''.
* 1380 (''Tenju 6''):
Kusunoki Masanori rejoins
Kameyama; southern army suffers reverses.
* July 26, 1380 (''Tenju 6, 24th day of the 6th month'')
NengoCalc天授六年六月二十四日 -->: The former
Emperor Kōmyō died at age 60.
[Titsingh]
p. 315.
/ref>
Notes
References
* Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982) ''Lessons from History: The Tokushi Yoron.'' Brisbane: University of Queensland Press
University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1948 as a traditional university press, UQP now publishes books for general readers across fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children's ...
.
* Mehl, Margaret. (1997). ''History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan.'' New York: St Martin's Press.
OCLC 419870136
* 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 48943301
* Thomas, Julia Adeney. (2001). ''Reconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Japanese Political Ideology.'' Berkeley: University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
. ;
* Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834). iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652">Hayashi_Gahō.html" ;"title="iyun-sai Rin-siyo/ iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652 ''Nipon o daï itsi ran">Hayashi Gahō">iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652">Hayashi_Gahō.html" ;"title="iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō">iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652 ''Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou
Annales des empereurs du Japon.
' Paris: Royal Asiatic Society">Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland
OCLC 84067437
{{Japanese era name
Japanese eras
1370s in Japan
1380s in Japan