Hakuchi (era)

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Hakuchi (白雉) was a Japanese era name (年号, nengō, lit. "year name") after the Taika era and before Shuchō. This period spanned the years from February 650 through December 654.^[1] The reigning emperor was Kōtoku-tennō (孝徳天皇).^[2]

The era began in 650, the sixth year of the Taika era, which was thus known as Hakuchi gannen (白雉元年, "Hakuchi start").^[3] The daimyō of Nagato Province brought a white pheasant to the court as a gift for the emperor. This white pheasant was then construed as a good omen. Emperor Kōtoku was extraordinarily pleased by this special avian rarity, and he wanted the entire court to see this white bird for themselves. He commanded a special audience in which he could formally invite the sadaijin and the udaijin to join him in admiring the rare bird; and on this occasion, the emperor caused the nengō to be changed to Hakuchi (meaning "white pheasant").^[4]

In Japan, this was the second nengō,^[1] derived from the Chinese system of eras (nianhao);^[5] although some scholarly doubt has been cast on the authenticity of Taika and Hakuchi as historically legitimate era names.^[6]

Timelines of early Japanese nengō and Imperial reign dates

The system of Japanese era names was not the same as Imperial reign dates.

• 650 (Hakuchi 1): Kōtoku commanded that all prisoners were to be granted liberty throughout the country.^[4]
• 654 (Hakuchi 5, 1st month): A great number of rats moved into the province of Yamato; and this was construed as a sign that the capital should be moved.^[3]
• 654 (Hakuchi 5): Kōtoku died at the age of 59 after a reign of 10 years—five years during Taika, and five years during Hakuchi.^[7]

• Bialock, David T. (2007). Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories: Narrative, Ritual, and Royal Authority from the Chronicles of Japan to the Tale of the Heike. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804751582 ISBN 0804751587; OCLC 237216457
• Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; OCLC 251325323
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Odai Ichiran; 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. ISBN 9780231049405; OCLC 6042764

• National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection