Kentoku
Kentoku (建徳) was a Japanese era of the Southern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after Shōhei and before Bunchū, lasting from July 1370 to April 1372. The reigning emperors were Chōkei in the south and Go-En'yū in the north.
Kentoku (建徳) was a Japanese era of the Southern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after Shōhei and before Bunchū, lasting from July 1370 to April 1372. The reigning emperors were Chōkei in the south and Go-En'yū in the north.

Nanboku-chō overview
During the Meiji period, an imperial decree dated March 3, 1911, established that the legitimate reigning monarchs of this period were the direct descendants of Emperor Go-Daigo through Emperor Go-Murakami, whose Southern Court (南朝, nanchō) had been established in exile in Yoshino, near Nara.Until the end of the Edo period, the militarily superior pretender-emperors supported by the Ashikaga shogunate had been mistakenly incorporated in imperial chronologies despite the undisputed fact that the Imperial Regalia were not in their possession.This illegitimate Northern Court (北朝, hokuchō) had been established in Kyoto by Ashikaga Takauji.

Change of era
Events of the Kentoku era
Northern Court equivalents
Ōan

Notes
References
Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
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

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