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Kansei (寛政, Kansei^?) was a Japanese era name (年号,, nengō,^?, lit. "year name") after Tenmei and before Kyōwa. This period spanned the years from 1789 through 1801. The reigning emperor was Kōkaku-tennō (光格天皇, Kōkaku-tennō^?).

• Kansei gannen (寛政元年, Kansei gannen^?); January 25, 1789: The new era name of Kansei (meaning "Tolerant Government" or "Broad-minded Government") was created to mark a number of calamities including a devastating fire at the Imperial Palace. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Tenmei 9, on the 25th day of the 1st month.

The broad panoply of changes and new initiatives of the Tokugawa shogunate during this era became known as the Kansei Reforms.

Matsudaira Sadanobu (1759-1929) was named the shogun's chief councilor (rōjū) in the summer of 1787; and early in the next year, he became the regent for the 11th shogun, Tokugawa Ienari.^[1] As the chief administrative decision-maker in the bakufuan hierarchy, he was in a position to effect radical change; and his initial actions represented an aggressive break with the recent past. Sadanobu's efforts were focused on strengthening the Edo government by reversing many of the policies and practices which had become commonplace under the regime of the previous shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu. These reform policies could be interpreted as a reactionary response to the excesses of his rōjū predecessor, Tanuma Okitsugu (1719-1788);^[2] and the result was that Tanuma-initiated, liberalizing reforms within the bakufu and relaxing the strictures of sakoku (Japan's "closed-door policy of excluding all foreigners) were reversed or blocked.^[3]

• Kansei 2 (1790): The shogunate issues an edict addressed to Hayashi Kinpō, the rector of the Edo Confucian Academy -- "The Kansei Prohibition of Heterodox Studies" (kansei igaku no kin).^[4]
• Kansei 10 (1798): Kansei Calendar Revision

• Hall, John Whitney. (1955). Tanuma Okitsugu: Forerunner of Modern Japan, 1719-1788. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Screech, Timon. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-7007-1720-X
• Totman, Conrad. (1967). Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600-1843. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-6746-8800-7 [reprinted by University of California Press, Berkely, 1988. ISBN 0-5200-6313-9]
• Nosco, Peter. (1997). Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1865-2

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

Kansei	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th
Gregorian	1789	1790	1791	1792	1793	1794	1795	1796	1797	1798	1799	1800	1801

Preceded by: Tenmei

Era or nengō: Kansei

Succeeded by: Kyōwa

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