Change of era

• 1201 ; 1201: The new era name was created to mark an event of shin'yū (辛酉), which is considered as the year of revolution in Sexagenary cycle
  Sexagenary cycle
  The Chinese sexagenary cycle , also known as the Stems-and-Branches , is a cycle of sixty terms used for recording days or years. It appears, as a means of recording days, in the first Chinese written texts, the Shang dynasty oracle bones from the late second millennium BC. Its use to record years...
  
  . The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Shōji 3, on the 13th day of the 2nd month of 1201.

Events of the Kennin era

• 1202 (Kennin 2, 1st month): Nitta Yoshishige
  Minamoto no Yoshishige
  Minamoto no Yoshishige was the progenitor of the Nitta branch family of the Minamoto samurai clan, who fought alongside the Minamoto in the Genpei War...
  
  , the deputy director for cuisine of Dairi (大炊助) in Daijō-kan, died. His court rank had been of the second rank of the fifth class (従五位下).
• 1202 (Kennin 2, 7th month): Minamoto no Yoriie
  Minamoto no Yoriie
  was the second shogun of Japan's Kamakura shogunate, and the first son of first shogun Yoritomo.- Life :Born from Tokimasa's daughter Hōjō Masako at Hiki Yoshikazu's residence in Kamakura, Yoriie had as wet nurses the wives of powerful men like Hiki himself and Kajiwara Kagetoki, and Hiki's...
  
   was raised in the court's hierarchic standing to the second rank of the second class; and he was created the 2nd shogun of the Kamakura shogunate
  Kamakura shogunate
  The Kamakura shogunate was a military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura. The Kamakura period draws its name from the capital of the shogunate...
  
  .
• 1202 (Kennin 2, 10th month): Naidaijin Minamoto no Michichika died at 54; and his court position was then filled by dainagon Fujiwara no Takatada.
• 1202 (Kennin 2): On orders from Shogun Minamoto no Yoriie, the monk Esai founded Kennin-ji
  Kennin-ji
  , is a historic Zen Buddhist temple in Higashiyama, Kyoto, Japan, near Gion. It is considered to be one of the so-called Kyoto Gozan or "five most important Zen temples of Kyoto".-History:...
  
  , a Zen temple and monastery in the Rinzai sect.
• 1203 (Kennin 3, 8th month): Shogun Yoriie fell gravely ill.
• 1203 (Kennin 3, 9th month): Yoriie shaved his head and became a Buddhist priest; and the emperor named Minamoto no Sanetomo
  Minamoto no Sanetomo
  Minamoto no Sanetomo was the third shogun of the Kamakura shogunate Sanetomo was the second son of the founder of the Kamakura shogunate Minamoto no Yoritomo, his mother was Hōjō Masako, and his older brother was the second Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoriie.His childhood name was...
  
   as the 3rd shogun; and Hōjō Tokimasa
  Hojo Tokimasa
  was the first Hōjō shikken of the Kamakura bakufu and head of the Hōjō clan. He was shikken from the death of Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1199 until his abdication in 1205.- Background: The Hōjō Clan :...
  
   became Sanetomo's shikken
  Shikken
  The was the regent for the shogun in the Kamakura shogunate in Japan. The post was monopolized by the Hōjō clan, and this system only existed once in Japanese history, between 1203 and 1333...
  
  (regent).

External links

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