Kentoku (建徳) was a Japanese era of the Southern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after Shōhei and before Bunchū, lasting from July 1370 to April 1372.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Kentoku" in Japan encyclopedia, p. 510; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File . The reigning emperors were Chōkei in the south and Go-En'yū 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 had been established in exile in Yoshino, near Nara.Thomas, Julia Adeney. (2001). Reconfiguring modernity: concepts of nature in Japanese political ideology, p. 199 n57, citing Mehl, Margaret. (1997). History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan. p. 140-147.
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 had been established in Kyoto by Ashikaga Takauji.
Change of era
Events of the Kentoku era
Northern Court equivalents Ōan
Notes
References Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ; OCLC 48943301 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
External links National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection