Shōhei


Shōhei was a Japanese era of the Southern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after Kōkoku and before Kentoku. This period spanned the years from December 1346 to July 1370. The Southern Court emperors in Yoshino were Emperor Go-Murakami and Emperor Chōkei. The emperors in Kyoto were Emperor Kōmyō, Emperor Sukō and Emperor Go-Kōgon in the north.

Nanboku-chō overview

During the Meiji period, 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 Southern Court had been established in exile in Yoshino, near Nara.
Until the end of the Edo period, 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 Northern Court had been established in Kyoto by Ashikaga Takauji.

Events of the Shohei Era

  • 1346 : The kampaku Takatsukasa Morohira was relieved of his duties; and he was replaced by Nijō Yoshimoto.
  • 1347 : Nijō Yoshimoto was demoted from his high office as Kampaku; and he was instead given the title and responsibilities of sadaijin.
  • 1349 : Go-Murakami flees to A'no; Ashikaga Tadayoshi and Kō no Moronao quarrel; Ashikaga Motouji, son of Takauji, appointed Kamakura Kanrei
  • 1350 : Yoshinori guarded Kyoto.
  • 1350 : Tadayoshi, excluded from administration, turns priest; Tadayoshi's adopted son, Ashikaga Tadafuyu is wrongly repudiated as a rebel.
  • 1351 : Tadayoshi joins Southern Court, southern army takes Kyoto; truce, Takauji returns to Kyoto; Tadayoshi and Takauji reconciled; Kō no Moronao and Kō no Moroyasu are exiled.
  • 1350-1352 : Armed conflict, variously known as the Kannō disturbance or Kannō no juran, developed from antagonism between Shōgun Ashikaga Takauji and his brother, Ashikaga Tadayoshi. Disagreement about the influence of Kō no Moronao diminished after death of Moronao. Tadayoshi was ordered to relocate to Kamakura. The brothers eventually reconciled before Tadayoshi's death in 1352.
  • 1352 : The grandfather of the emperor is advanced from the rank of dainagon to nadaijin.
  • 1353 : Kyoto occupied by southern forces under Yamana Tokiuji; and the capital was retaken by the Ashikaga.
  • 1354 : Takauji flees with Go-Kōgon; Kitabatake Chikafusa dies.
  • 1355 : Kyoto taken by southern army; Kyoto retaken again by the Ashikaga forces.
  • 1356 : Minamoto no Michisuke was advanced from the court rank of dainagon to nadaijin.
  • 1356 Shōhei 11): Ashikaga Yoshinori is raised to the second rank of the third class in the court hierarchy.
  • 1357 : Emperor Go-Murakami, who had captured former-Emperor Kōgon, former-Emperor Kōmyō and former-Emperor Sukō in 1352, released all three of them and permitted their return from Yoshino to Kyoto.
  • 1358 : Death of Ashikaga Takauji; Ashikaga Yoshiakira appointed shōgun; dissention and defections in shogunate.
  • 1361 : Snowfall was unusually heavy; and there was also a disastrous fire in Kyoto as well as a violent earthquake.
  • 1361 : Eigen-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple located in modern-day Shiga prefecture, was founded Sasaki Ujiyori; and its first Abbot was Jakushitsu Genko.
  • 1362 : Hosokawa Kiyouji and Kusunoki Masanori attack Kyoto, Ashikaga Yoshiakira flees, but regains the capital in twenty days.

    Northern Court Equivalents

  • Jōwa
  • Kan'ō
  • Bunna
  • Enbun
  • Kōan
  • Jōji
  • Ōan