Kōkoku

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Kōkoku (興国) was a Japanese era of the Southern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after Engen and before Shōhei, lasting from April 1340 to December 1346.^[1] The emperor in Kyoto was Emperor Kōmyō (光明天皇, Kōmyō-tennō).^[2] Go-Kōgon's Southern Court rival in Yoshino during this time-frame was Emperor Go-Murakami (後村上天皇, Go-Murakami-tennō).

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 (南朝, nanchō) had been established in exile in Yoshino, near Nara.^[3]

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.^[3]

This illegitimate Northern Court (北朝, hokuchō) had been established in Kyoto by Ashikaga Takauji.^[3]

• Northern Court Equivalents: Ryakuō; Kōei; Jōwa

• 1342 (Kōtoku 3): Ichijō Tsunemichi loses his position as kampaku; and he is replaced by Kujō Michinori.^[4]
• 1342 (Kōtoku 3): Minamoto no Nagamichi (源長通) is removed from his position as daijō daijin.^[4]
• 1342 (Kōtoku 3): Kujō Michinori is replaced by Takatsukasa Morohira, who was formerly udaijin.^[4]
• 1342 (Kōtoku 3): Fujiwara no Kiyoko dies. She was the daughter of Usesugi Yorishige and the mother of Ashikaga Takauji.^[4]
• 1343 (Kōtoku 4): Nijō Yoshimoto, the author of Masukagami, was promoted from the court position of nadaijin to udaijin; and in due course, the udaijin was promoted to sadaijin. The dainagon was promoted to nadaijin.^[4]
• 1344 (Kōtoku 4): Shōgun Takauji offered prayers at Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū.^[4]

• Mehl, Margaret. (1997). History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-21160-8; OCLC 419870136
• Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
• Thomas, Julia Adeney. (2001). Reconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Japanese Political Ideology. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-22854-2; OCLC 47916285
• 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

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