Genroku

.Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). "Annales des empereurs du japon," p. 415.] The years of "Genroku" are generally considered to be the Golden Age of the Edo Period. The previous hundred years of peace and seclusion in Japan had created relative economic stability. The arts and architecture flourished. There were unanticipated consequences when the shogunate debased the quality of coins as a strategy for financing the appearance of continuing "Genroku" affluence. This strategic miscalculation caused abrupt inflation. Then, in an effort to solve the ensuing crisis, the "bakufu" introduced what were called the Kyōhō Reforms.

Change of era

*; 1688: The new era name was created to mark the beginning of the reign of Higashiyama. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in "Jōkyō" 5, on the 30th day of the 9th month.

A sense of optimism is suggested in the era name choice of "Genroku" (meaning "Original happiness").

Events of the "Genroku" era

* "Genroku gannen" or "Genroku 1" (1688):
** G1, 1st month: Ihara Saikaku publishes "Japan's Eternal Treasury".
** G1, 11th month: Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu assumes the office of "Soba Yōnin."
** Opening up of new territory on Dōjima in Ōsaka becomes possible.
* "Genroku 1" (1688): The Tokugawa shogunate revised the code of conduct for funerals ("Fuku-kiju-ryō"), which incorporated a code of conduct for mourning as well. [Smith, Robert "et al." (2004). "Japanese Culture: Its Development And Characteristics," p. 28.]
* "Genroku 2" (1689):
** G2, 4th month: Foreign settlements in Nagasaki become possible.
** G2 (September 16, 1689): German physician Engelbert Kaempfer arrives at Dejima for the first time. "Bakufu" policy in this era was designed to marginalize the influence of foreigners in "Genroku" Japan; and Kaempfer had to present himself as "Dutch" in dealings with the Japanese. Regardless of this minor subterfuge, an unintended and opposite consequence of "sakoku" was to enhance the value and significance of a very small number of thoughtful observers like Kaempfer, whose writings document what he learned or discovered first-hand. Kaempfer's published accounts and unpublished writings provided a unique and useful perspective for Orientalists and Japanologists in the 19th century; and his work continues to be rigorously examined by modern researchers today. [Screech, T. (2006). "Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822," p. 73.]
* "Genroku 3" (1690):
** G3, 10th month: The Abandoned Child Ban was officially proclaimed.
* "Genroku 5" (1692):
** Building of temples in Edo banned.
* "Genroku 6" (1693):
** G6, 12th month: Arai Hakuseki becomes tutor to the "daimyō" of "Kōfu"-"han", the future "Shōgun" Tokugawa Ienobu.
* "Genroku 6" (1693): The code of conduct for funerals is revised again. [Smith, p. 28.]
* "Genroku 8" (1695):
** G8, 2nd month: Land survey performed of territory under the direct control of the "bakufu" in "Kantō".
** G8, 8th month: Minting begun of "Genroku" coinage. The shogunate placed the Japanese character "gen" (元) on the obverse of copper coins, the same character used today in China for the yuan. There is no connection between those uses, however. [see above] ]
** G8, 11th month: First kennel is established for stray dogs in Edo. In this context, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi comes to be nicknamed "the Dog Shogun" (いぬくぼう 犬公方, "Inu-kubō"').
* G10 (1697): The fourth official map of Japan was made in this year, but it was considered to be inferior to the previous one -- which had been ordered in "Shōhō" 1 (1605 and completed in "Kan'ei" 16 (1639}. This "Genroku" map was corrected in "Kyōhō" 4 (1719) by the mathematician Tatebe Katahiro (1644-1739), using high mountain peaks as points of reference, and was drawn to a scale of 1:21,600. [Traganeou, Jilly. (2004). "The Tokaido Road: Traveling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan," p. 230.]
* G10 (1697): Great fire in Edo. [see above] ] Five-storied Pagoda
* G11 (1698): Another great fire in Edo. A new hall is constructed inside the enclosure of the Edo temple of Kan'ei-ji (which is also known as Tōeizan Kan’ei-ji or "Hiei-san of the east" after the principal temple of the Tendai Buddhist sect -- that is to say, after the temple of Enryaku-ji at Mount Hiei near to Heian-kyo). [see above] ]
* "Genroku 13" (1700):
** G13, 11th month: Exchange rate of silver coins established.
* "Genroku 16" (1703):
** G16, 3rd month: Ōishi Yoshio commits seppuku.
** G16, 5th month: First performance of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's play "Double Suicide of Sonezaki".
** G16, on the 28th day of the 11th month (1703): The Great Genroku Earthquake shook Edo [Japanese Wikipedia: ] and parts of the shogun's castle collapsed.Hammer, Joshua. (2006). [http://books.google.com/books?id=6O8VyhDbUPgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=yokohama+burning&sig=rbgbEDXJV5fht4wdSD1HBoAMANg#PPA63,M1 "Yokohama Burning: The Deadly 1923 Earthquake and Fire that Helped Forge the Path to World War II," p. 63.] ] The following day, a vast fire spread throughout the city [see above] ] . Parts of Honshū's coast were battered by tsunami, and 200,000 people were either killed or injured. [see above] ]

Prominent figures of the "Genroku" era

*Chikamatsu Monzaemon - jōruri playwright
*Ichikawa Danjūrō I, Sakata Tōjūrō I, Yoshizawa Ayame I - kabuki actors
*Ihara Saikaku - novelist
*Arai Hakuseki - Confucian scholar and shogunal advisor
*The Forty-seven Ronin
*Ogata Korin and Ogata Kenzan - Rinpa school artists
*Torii Kiyonobu, Hishikawa Moronobu, Miyagawa Chōshun - ukiyo-e artists

Notes

References

* Hammer, Joshua. (2006). [http://books.google.com/books?id=6O8VyhDbUPgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Tokyo+1923&lr=&source=gbs_summary_r "Yokohama Burning: The Deadly 1923 Earthquake and Fire that Helped Forge the Path to World War II."] New York: Simon & Schuster. 10-ISBN 0-743-26465-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-743-26465-5 (cloth)
* Screech, Timon. (2006). "Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822." London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-700-71720-X
* Smith, Robert John and Richard K. Beardsley. (2004). "Japanese Culture: Its Development And Characteristics." London: Routledge. ISBN 0-4153-3039-4
* Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652] , "Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon, tr. par M. Isaac Titsingh avec l'aide de plusieurs interprètes attachés au comptoir hollandais de Nangasaki; ouvrage re., complété et cor. sur l'original japonais-chinois, accompagné de notes et précédé d'un Aperçu d'histoire mythologique du Japon, par M. J. Klaproth." Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. [http://books.google.com/books?id=Cg8oAAAAMAAJ&dq=editions:OCLC63259938 ... Click link for copy of this book digitized from University of Michigan (in French)]
* Traganeou, Jilly. (2004). "The Tokaido Road: Traveling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan." London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-4153-1091-1

ee also

* 1703 Genroku earthquake
* "An'ei" -- Carl Peter Thunberg, Isaac Titsingh
* "Bunsei" -- Philipp Franz von Siebold

External links

* National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" [http://www.ndl.go.jp/koyomi/e/ -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection]

External links

* [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=102799&imageID=481247&word=japan&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&total=1807&num=612&imgs=12&pNum=&pos=622# New York Public Library Digitial Gallery, Engelbert Kaempfer's 1691 impression of Hōkō-ji compound (published 1727)]

Genroku	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th
Gregorian	1688	1689	1690	1691	1692	1693	1694	1695	1696	1697	1698	1699	1700	1701	1702	1703	1704

Preceded by: "Jōkyō"

Era or "nengō": Genroku

Succeeded by: "Hōei"