Bunka

History of Japan
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For the embroidery technique, see Bunka shishu.

Bunka (文化) was a Japanese era name (年号,, nengō,, lit. "year name") after Kyōwa and before Bunsei. The period spanned the years from January 1804 to April 1818. The reigning emperors were Kōkaku-tennō (光格天皇) and Ninkō-Tennō (仁孝天皇).

Change of era

• February 11, 1804 (Bunka gannen (文化元年)): The new era name of Bunka ( meaning "Culture" or "Civilization") was created to mark the start of a new 60-year cycle of the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch system of the Chinese Calendar which was on New Year's Day, the new moon day of 2 November 1804. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Kyōwa 4.

Events of the Bunka era

• 1804 (Bunka 1): Daigaku-no kami Hayashi Jussai (1768–1841) explained the shogunate foreign policy to Emperor Kōkaku in Kyoto.
• June 1805 (Bunka 2): Genpaku Sugita (1733–1817) is granted an audience with Shogun Ienari to explain differences between traditional medical knowledge and Western medical knowledge.
• September 25, 1810 (Bunka 7, 27th day of the 8thmonth): Earthquake in northern Honshū (Latitude: 39.900/Longitude: 139.900), 6.6 magnitude on the Richter Scale....Click link for NOAA/Japan: Significant Earthquake Database
• December 7, 1812 (Bunka 9, 4th day of the 11th month): Earthquake in Honshū (Latitude: 35.400/Longitude: 139.600), 6.6 magnitude on the Richter Scale.
• 1817 (Bunka 14): Emperor Kokaku travelled in procession to Sento Imperial Palace, a palace of an abdicated emperor. The Sento Palace at that time was called Sakura Machi Palace. It had been built by the Tokugawa Shogunate for former-Emperor Go-Mizunoo.

References

• Cullen, Louis M. (2003). A History of Japan, 1582-1941: Internal and External Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10-ISBN 052182155X/13-ISBN 9780521821551; 10-ISBN 0521529182/13-ISBN 9780521529181; OCLC 50694793
• Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01753-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
• Sugita Genpaku. (1930). Dawn of Western Science in Japan (蘭學事始, Rangaku kotohajime). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. OCLC 9424185

External links

• National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection
• National Archives of Japan: Sakuramachiden Gyokozu, scroll depicting Emperor Kōkaku in formal procession, 1817 (Bunka 14).

Bunka	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th
Gregorian	1804	1805	1806	1807	1808	1809	1810	1811	1812	1813	1814	1815	1816	1817	1818

Preceded by Kyōwa

Era or nengō Bunka 1804–1818

Succeeded by Bunsei