Late Middle Japanese (中世日本語, chūsei nihongo) was a stage of the Japanese language following Early Middle Japanese and preceding Early Modern Japanese. It was a period of transition in which the language shed many of its archaic features and became closer to its modern form. The period spanned roughly 500 years from the 12th century to the 16th century and is customarily divided into Early and Late periods. Politically, the first half of Late Middle Japanese was the end of the Heian period, known as Insei and the Kamakura period. The second half of Late Middle Japanese was the Muromachi period.