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Tenchō (天長) was a Japanese era name (年号, nengō, lit. "year name") after Kōnin and before Jōwa. This period spanned the years from January 824 through January 834.^[1] The reigning emperors were Junna-tennō (淳和天皇) and Ninmyō-tennō (仁明天皇).^[2]

• February 6, 824 Tenchō gannen (天長元年): The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in Kōnin 15, on the 5th day of the 1st month of 824.^[3]

• 824 (Tenchō 1): This summer was entirely dry; and prayers for rain were offered by the Buddhist priest Kūkai, who is also known by the posthumous name, Kōbō-Daishi. Those prayers seemed to be answered when it did begin to rain sometime later.^[4]
• 824 (Tenchō 1, 7th month): The former-Emperor Heizei died at age 51.^[4]
• 825 (Tenchō 2, 11th month): The former-Emperor Saga celebrated his 40th birthday.^[5]
• 826 (Tenchō 3, 11th month): Kōbō-Daishi counsels the emperor to build a pagoda near To-ji in Kyoto.^[6]

• Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03460-0; OCLC 251325323
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• 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
• Varley, H. Paul. (1980). A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231049405; OCLC 6042764

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