was a after Kyōwa and before Bunsei. The period spanned the years from January 1804 to April 1818. The reigning emperors were and .

Change of era

  • February 11, 1804 (): The new era name of Bunka ( meaning "Culture" or "Civilization") was created to mark the start of a new 60-year cycle of the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch system of the Chinese calendar which was on New Year's Day, the new moon day of 2 November 1804. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Kyōwa 4.

Events of the Bunka era

  • 1804 (Bunka 1): Daigaku-no-kami Hayashi Jussai (1768–1841) explained the shogunate foreign policy to Emperor Kōkaku in Kyoto.
  • June 1805 (Bunka 2): Genpaku Sugita (1733–1817) is granted an audience with Shōgun Ienari to explain differences between traditional medical knowledge and Western medical knowledge.
  • September 25, 1810 (Bunka 7, 27th day of the 8th month):<!-- NengoCalc 文化七年八月二十七日 --> Earthquake in northern Honshū (Latitude: 39.900/Longitude: 139.900), 6.6 magnitude on the Surface wave magnitude scale....Click link for NOAA/Japan: Significant Earthquake Database
  • December 7, 1812 (Bunka 9, 4th day of the 11th month):<!-- NengoCalc 文化九年十一月四日 --> Earthquake in Honshū (Latitude: 35.400/Longitude: 139.600), 6.6 magnitude.

Notes

References

  • Cullen, Louis M. (2003). A History of Japan, 1582–1941: Internal and External Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ; ; OCLC 50694793
  • Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ; OCLC 48943301
  • Sugita Genpaku. (1930). . Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. OCLC 9424185
  • National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection
  • National Archives of Japan: Sakuramachiden Gyokozu, scroll depicting Emperor Kōkaku in formal procession, 1817 (Bunka 14).