Ōan (応安), also romanized asŌ-an, was aJapanese era name (年号,nengō, lit. year name) of theNorthern Court during theEra of Northern and Southern Courts afterJōji and beforeEiwa. This period spanned the years from February 1368 through February 1375.^[1] The emperors in Kyoto wereEmperor Go-Kōgon (後光厳天皇,Go-Kōgon-tennō) andEmperor Go-En'yū (後円融天皇,Go-En'yū-tennō)^[2] TheSouthern Court rival in Yoshino during this time-frame wasEmperor Chōkei (長慶天皇,Chōkei-tennō).

During theMeiji period, an Imperial decree dated March 3, 1911 established that the legitimate reigning monarchs of this period were the direct descendants ofEmperor Go-Daigo throughEmperor Go-Murakami, whose Southern Court (南朝,nanchō) had been established in exile inYoshino, near Nara.^[3]

Until the end of theEdo period, the militarily superior pretender-Emperors supported by theAshikaga shogunate had been mistakenly incorporated in Imperial chronologies despite the undisputed fact that theImperial Regalia were not in their possession.^[3]

This illegitimateNorthern Court (北朝,hokuchō) had been established inKyoto byAshikaga Takauji.^[3]

• 1368, also calledŌan gannen (応安元年): The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The previous era ended and the new one commenced inJōji 7.

In this time frame,Shōhei (1346–1370),Kentoku (1370–1372) andBunchū (1372–1375) were Southern Court equivalentnengō.

• 1368 (Ōan 1): The Southern Court proclaimsEmperor Chōkei's succession to the vacancy created by the death ofEmperor Go-Murakami.^[4]
• 1369 (Ōan 2):Kusunoki Masanori defects to Ashikaga.^[4]
• 1370 (Ōan 3):Imagawa Sadayo sent to subdue Kyūshū.^[4]
• 1371 (Ōan 4): Attempts to arrange truce.^[4]
• 1373-1406 (Ōan 6 –Ōei 13): Embassies between China and Japan.^[4]
• 1374 (Ōan 7):En'yū ascends northern throne.^[4]

• Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982)Lessons from History: TheTokushi Yoron. Brisbane:University of Queensland Press.ISBN 978-0-7022-1485-1
• Mehl, Margaret. (1997).History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan. New York:St Martin's Press.ISBN 978-0-312-21160-8;OCLC 419870136
• Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005).Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge:Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5;OCLC 48943301
• Thomas, Julia Adeney. (2001).Reconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Japanese Political Ideology. Berkeley:University of California Press.ISBN 978-0-520-22854-2;OCLC 47916285
• 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

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

• Japanese eras
• 1360s in Japan
• 1370s in Japan
• 14th-century neologisms

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Japanese-language text