between the two courts. Buddhist architecture, arts, and crafts spread from the capital to the provinces, and literature flourished, as evidenced by the publication of a great collection of 4,400 poems, the Manyōshū.
In the early days, the capital was moved every time an emperor died. In 694, the Emperor Temmu decided to build a permanent capital at Fujiwarakyō (kyō means capital city), a little north of Asuka. The capital for seven years, it was the first full-scale capital in Japan, with streets laid out in a square grid pattern, as was the custom in China. However, changes in the political and economic situation made it necessary to expand the government bureaucracy. Because the space at Fujiwarakyō was limited, the capital was moved to Heijokyō (the present-day Nara) in 710 by the Emperor Genmei.
Only the foundations remain from the original buildings at Shitennōji, one of the earliest temples in Japan. This model at the Osaka Prefectural Chikatsu Asuka Museum shows the linear arrangement of the gate, pagoda, main hall, and lecture hall.
Nara Period (710-794)
Despite several temporary moves back and forth between Heijōkyō and other locations, Heijōkyō remained the capital for 74 years until it was moved to Nagaokakyō in 784. With the support of the court, the major Buddhist denominations built headquarters in Nara, such as Yakushiji and Kōfukuji. Emperor Shōmu, a vigorous supporter of Buddhism, decreed that temples and nunneries be erected in each province and that Tōdaiji be built in Nara as the head cathedral of this national network. A number of items used by Emperor Shōmu in his daily life are preserved in the Shōsōin Repository of Imperial Treasures in Nara, one of the few buildings still remaining from the Nara Period. The great flowering of architecture and the arts in the Nara Period marks the high point of Buddhist culture in Japan. It also marks the maturation of Japan into a civilized state sufficiently powerful to ensure a certain measure of stability.
Hypothetical interior of a rural farmhouse (minka) in the early historical period.
Residential Architecture
The sixth through the eighth centuries are best known for the introduction of Buddhism and the construction of capitals in the Chinese style, as described above. There were, however, indigenous developments, primarily in the area of residential architecture. Average houses were probably botattebashira (pillars sunk in the ground), with either thatch or board roofs, the latter weighted down with stones. Starting in the Asuka Period, palaces, temples, and aristocratic dwellings were built at the expense of the farmers who paid heavy taxes and provided forced labor. Their pit houses grew progressively smaller as the condition of farmers worsened.
At the same time, however, technology improved to the point that it was possible to eliminate interior posts that supported the roofs of pit houses and rely solely on pillars in the exterior walls. Eventually, the pit was eliminated altogether in favor of rectangular ground-level dwellings with two interior rooms: a room with an earthen floor and fire pit for cooking, and a room whose earthen floor was covered with straw and mats for eating and sleeping. This basic plan can still be seen in some traditional farmhouses (minka).
Most common roof types used in Japan. Pre-Buddhist shrines used a gable roof, whereas the hipped-and-gable roof became popular after the introduction of Buddhist architecture in the sixth century.
Heijōkyō: An Early Capital
Early capitals were temporary affairs that were moved when an emperor died. Needing to demonstrate the power of the Yamato Court, Emperor Genmei decided to move the capital from Fujiwarakyō, near Asuka, to Heijōkyō, a site considered ideal according to Chinese principles of geomancy. The move, accomplished in only two years, was facilitated by dismantling the existing palace and reusing the lumber.
Model of an ornamental roof tile used on a corner of the roof of the second Daigokuden. The tile is called onigawara (tile with a "devil" face). The face shown here is a good devil, whose job was to frighten away bad devils that caused fire, lightning, wind, and other damage to buildings.
The City
In 708, when the emperor decided to move the capital to Heijōkyō (kyō means capital), the people living in the area had to be relocated. Hills had to be leveled and valleys filled in, with much of the work done by conscripted farmers working with hand tools. The work was so difficult that many attempted to escape and return home. Heijōkyō, modeled after the Chinese capital of Ch'angan, occupied an area 5.9 kilometers from east to west and 4.8 kilometers from north to south; 1.2 square kilometers were allotted for the palace. For materials, they moved lumber and tile from the Fujiwara palace, supplemented by timbers brought from neighboring prefectures on rafts floated down the river to the nearby town of Kizu. Stone was quarried at Nijōzan, a mountain near the present Nara City, and tile was manufactured at kilns near the new capital.
Heijōkyō was a good-sized city with an estimated population of around 100,000. The city was divided into squares, with streets running north and south and avenues running east and west. Heijōkyū, the palace compound, was placed at the northern end of the capital, as in Ch'angan, the capital of Tang China, and was enclosed by a 5-meter-high fence. The main street of the capital was a 74-meter-wide thoroughfare, Suzaku Ōji, which ran from Suzakumon, the main palace gate, to Rajōmon, a gate at the southern entrance of the capital. Outside the palace compound were temples, houses, and the east and west market areas. Commerce was allowed only in the market areas, controlled by the government, which brought goods in via canals and the Akishino River, which passed by the west market.
Except for several short-lived moves to other cities, Heijōkyō remained the capital of Japan for 74 years until the capital was moved to Nagaokakyō in 784 and then to Heiankyō (Kyoto) in 794 where it remained for around 1,000 years.
Plan of Heijōkyō
1 Palace Compound
2 Fujiwara-no-fuhito Mansion (site of Hokkeji)
3 Nagaya-ō Mansion
4 Tōdaiji Temple
5 Kōfukuji Temple
6 Gangōji Temple
7 Daianji Temple
8 Saidaiji Temple
9 Tōshōdaiji Temple
10 Yakushiji Temple
11 West Market
12 East Market
13 Suzakumon Gate
14 Rajōmon Gate
The Palace
The main buildings in the palace area were the Daigokuden (Hall of State), in which national events such as coronation ceremonies and meetings with foreign delegations took place, and the Chōdōin (government offices). These buildings were Chinese in style, constructed on raised platforms, some of which were faced with brick or stone. Vermilion colored posts supporting the large tiled roof rested on foundation stones. Some of the bays between these posts were open, while others were closed in with white plastered walls.
To the north of the Daigokuden, inside a fenced area, was the Dairi, the emperor's living quarters. Although there is little detailed information about palaces and aristocratic mansions from this period, they seem to have been constructed in the indigenous Japanese style, consisting of a large, undivided central area (moya), part of which was enclosed by walls or doors, with the rest open to one or more raised verandas that were sometimes covered with their own roofs to form extensions known as hisashi. The floor was raised and planked, and the bark roof was either hipped or hipped-and-gable. The main posts were sunk in the ground in the hottatebashira fashion used since