1336

1336 is a natural number and a calendar year. As a number it factors as 2^3·167 and is written MCCCXXXVI in Roman numerals. As a year (AD) it is notable for events in Japan, including Ashikaga Takauji's rise.

1336 can refer either to the integer that follows 1335 and precedes 1337, or to the calendar year AD 1336. Both senses appear in numerical, chronological and cultural references: mathematically as an even composite integer with simple factorization, and historically as a year that witnessed significant political change in medieval Japan.

Mathematical properties

As an integer 1336 is even and composite. Its prime factorization is 2^3 × 167, where 167 is a prime number. In Roman numerals it is written MCCCXXXVI. Because it is divisible by 4, 1336 would be categorized as a leap year in both the Julian calendar (used historically in Europe at the time) and in the proleptic Gregorian reckoning.

1336 (year): historical overview

The year AD 1336 is most often noted for events in Japan during the chaotic period that followed the fall of the Kamakura shogunate. In 1336 Ashikaga Takauji, a military leader who had initially supported the imperial restoration, established himself in Kyoto and set up a rival court. This development led to the division between a Northern Court in Kyoto backed by the Ashikaga shogunate and a Southern Court loyal to Emperor Go-Daigo, a conflict commonly called the Nanboku-chō period.

Notable events and figures

Ashikaga Takauji's seizure of power and the formation of the Ashikaga (Muromachi) shogunate, which reshaped Japanese governance.
The Battle of Minatogawa (1336) and the death of Kusunoki Masashige, a samurai remembered for loyalty to Emperor Go-Daigo.
The political split that produced rival imperial courts and decades of intermittent warfare and rival claims to legitimacy.

Outside East Asia, 1336 sits on the eve of larger European conflicts that would unfold later in the 14th century; it is therefore often treated as part of the broader transitional mid‑Medieval era leading into later crises and transformations.

As both a number and a year, 1336 serves different roles: in arithmetic it is an example of a small composite with a compact factorization, and in chronology it marks a turning point in Japanese medieval history whose consequences shaped centuries of political and cultural development.