Hōei

Change of era

• 1704 Hōei gannen: In reaction to the Great Genroku earthquake in Genroku 16, the era name was changed to Hōei. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in Genroku 17, on the 13th day of the 3rd month.

  Events of the ''Hōei'' era

• October 28, 1707 : Great Hōei earthquake. The city of Osaka suffers tremendously because of a very violent earthquake.
• December 16, 1707 : An eruption of Mt. Fuji; the cinders and ash fell like rain in Izu, Kai, Sagami, and Musashi.
• April 28, 1708 : There was a great fire in Heian-kyō.
• May 20, 1708 : The shogunate introduces new copper coins into circulation; and each coin is marked with the Hōei nengō name.
• October 12, 1708 : Italian missionary Giovanni Sidotti landed in Yakushima, where he was promptly arrested.
• February 19, 1709 : The wife of Shōgun Tsunayoshi killed him with a knife, and then she stabbed herself in the heart. Tsunayoshi's homosexual interests were aroused by the son of the daimyō of Kai; and his plans to adopt this Tokugawa youth as his successor were known by a few inside Edo Castle. The shōgun's wife, who was also a daughter of the emperor, foresaw that this choice of a successor would be very poorly received by many; and she feared that it might result in a disastrous civil war. The shōgun's wife did everything she could to dissuade Tsunayoshi from continuing with such potentially divisive and dangerous plans; and when it became clear that her arguments were in vain, she resolutely sacrificed herself for the good of the country—she killed her husband and then killed herself. She may also have done this as she hated the boy.
• 1709 : Minamoto no Ienobu, Tsunayoshi's nephew, becomes the 6th shōgun of the Edo bakufu.
• August 7, 1709 : The Emperor abdicates.
• January 16, 1710 : Higashiyama dies.
• July 7, 1710 - March 22, 1711 : Ryukyuan mission to Edo, the largest delegation—168 people—in the Edo Period.

  Gallery