Nara period
Nara period | |||
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710–794 | |||
Nara | |||
Location | Japan | ||
Key events |
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Chronology
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Part of a series on the |
History of Japan |
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The Nara period (奈良時代, Nara jidai) of the
Japanese society during this period was predominantly agricultural and centered on village life. Most of the villagers followed Shintō, a religion based on the worship of natural and ancestral spirits named kami.
The capital at Nara was modeled after Chang'an, the capital city of the Tang dynasty.[2] In many other ways, the Japanese upper classes patterned themselves after the Chinese, including adopting the Chinese writing system, Chinese fashion, and a Chinese version of Buddhism.
Literature
Concentrated efforts by the
With the spread of written language, the writing of Japanese poetry, known in Japanese as waka, began. The largest and longest-surviving collection of Japanese poetry, the Man'yōshū, was compiled from poems mostly composed between 600 and 759 CE.[4] This, and other Nara texts, used Chinese characters to express the sounds of Japanese, known as man'yōgana.[5]
Economic, livelihood, and administrative developments
Kinai | Tōkaidō | Tōsandō | Hokurikudō |
San’indō | San’yōdō | Nankaidō | Saikaidō |
Before the
Economic and administrative activity increased during the Nara period. Roads linked Nara to provincial capitals, and taxes were collected more efficiently and routinely. Coins were minted, if not widely used. Outside the Nara area, there was little commercial activity, and in the provinces the old
Factional fighting at the imperial court continued throughout the Nara period. Imperial family members, leading court families, such as the
In the late Nara period, financial burdens on the state increased, and the court began dismissing nonessential officials. In 792 universal conscription was abandoned, and district heads were allowed to establish private militia forces for local police work. Decentralization of authority became the rule despite the reforms of the Nara period. Eventually, to return control to imperial hands, the capital was moved in 784 to Nagaoka-kyō and in 794 to Heian-kyō (literally Capital of Peace and Tranquility), about twenty-six kilometers north of Nara. By the late eleventh century, the city was popularly called Kyoto (capital city), the name it has had ever since.
Cultural developments and the establishment of Buddhism
Some of Japan's literary monuments were written during the Nara period, including the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the first national histories, compiled in 712 and 720 respectively; the Man'yōshū, an anthology of poems; and the Kaifūsō, an anthology written in kanji by Japanese emperors and princes.
Another major cultural development of the era was the permanent establishment of Buddhism. Buddhism was introduced by Baekje in the sixth century but had a mixed reception until the Nara period, when it was heartily embraced by Emperor Shōmu. Shōmu and his Fujiwara consort were fervent Buddhists and actively promoted the spread of Buddhism, making it the "guardian of the state" and a way of strengthening Japanese institutions.
During Shōmu's reign, the
The central government established temples called kokubunji in the provinces. The Tōdai-ji was the kokubunji of Yamato Province (present-day Nara Prefecture).
Although these efforts stopped short of making Buddhism the state religion, Nara Buddhism heightened the status of the imperial family. Buddhist influence at court increased under the two reigns of Shōmu's daughter. As Empress Kōken (r. 749–758) she brought many Buddhist priests into court. Kōken abdicated in 758 on the advice of her cousin, Fujiwara no Nakamaro. When the retired empress came to favor a Buddhist faith healer named Dōkyō, Nakamaro rose up in arms in 764 but was quickly crushed. Kōken charged the ruling emperor with colluding with Nakamaro and had him deposed. Kōken reascended the throne as Empress Shōtoku (r. 764–770).
The empress commissioned the printing of 1 million prayer charms — the Hyakumantō Darani — many examples of which survive. The small scrolls, dating from 770, are among the earliest printed works in the world. Shōtoku had the charms printed to placate the Buddhist clergy. She may even have wanted to make Dōkyō emperor, but she died before she could act. Her actions shocked Nara society and led to the exclusion of women from imperial succession and the removal of Buddhist priests from positions of political authority.
Many of the Japanese artworks and imported treasures from other countries during the era of Emperors Shōmu and Shōtoku are archived in
The first authentically Japanese gardens were built in the city of Nara at the end of the eighth century. Shorelines and stone settings were naturalistic, different from the heavier, earlier continental mode of constructing pond edges. Two such gardens have been found at excavations; both were used for poetry-writing festivities.[6]
International relations
The Nara court aggressively imported knowledge about the
The
Relations with the Korean kingdom of Silla were initially peaceful, with regular diplomatic exchanges. The rise of Balhae north of Silla destabilized Japan-Silla relations. Balhae sent its first mission in 728 to Nara, which welcomed them as the successor state to Goguryeo, with which Japan had been allied until Silla unified the Three Kingdoms of Korea.
Events
- 710: Japan's capital is moved from Fujiwara-kyō to Heijō-kyō, modeled after China's capital Chang'an.
- 712: The collection of tales called the Kojiki is published.
- 717: The Hōshi Ryokan is founded, and it survives to become Japan's (and the world's) second oldest known hotel in 2012. (The oldest was founded in 705.)
- 720: The collection of tales called the Nihon Shoki is published.
- 735–737: A devastating smallpox epidemic spread from Kyushu to eastern Honshu and Nara, killing an estimated one-third of the Japanese population in these areas.[11][12] The epidemic is said to have led to the construction of several prominent Buddhist structures during this time period as a form of appeasement.[13][14]
- 743: Nara.
- 752: The Great Buddha (Daibutsu) at Tōdai-ji is completed.
- 759: The poetic anthology Man'yōshū is published.
- 784: The emperor moves the capital to Nagaoka.
- 788: The Buddhist monk Saichō founds the monastery of Mt Hiei, near Kyoto, which becomes a vast ensemble of Buddhist temples.
See also
References
- ^ Dolan, Ronald E. and Worden, Robert L., ed. (1994) "Nara and Heian Periods, A.D. 710–1185" Japan: A Country Study. Library of Congress, Federal Research Division.
- ISBN 978-1-59884-162-6.
- ISBN 978-1-136-61368-5. Archivedfrom the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-136-61368-5. Archivedfrom the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-139-48880-8. Archivedfrom the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
- ^ "See Wybe Kuitert, Two Early Japanese Gardens 1991". Archived from the original on 2015-11-23. Retrieved 2015-11-26.
- ISBN 978-1-4390-8540-0.
- ISBN 978-0-8048-3674-6
- ISSN 1341-7207.
- ^ The Hayato dance appears repeatedly in the Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, and Shoku Nihongi, performed on the occasion of paying tribute to the court and for the benefit of foreign visitors.
- PMID 21792253.
- ISBN 978-0415707022.
- ISBN 978-0816048939.
- ISBN 978-0816048939.
Further reading
English
- Brown, Delmer M. (1993). Cambridge History of Japan: Ancient Japan.
- Farris, William (1993). Japan's Medieval Population: Famine, Fertility, and Warfare in a Transformative Age. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu.
- Ooms, Herman (2009). Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: The Tenmu Dynasty. pp. 650–800.
- Sansom, George Bailey, G. B. (1978). Cambridge History of Japan: Ancient Japan.
- S2CID 146242695.
- Bender, Ross (2012). Friday, Karl (ed.). "Emperor, Aristocracy, and the Ritsuryō State: Court Politics in Nara". Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850. Westview Press. Retrieved October 11, 2012.
Other
- Kojima, Noriyuki (1994). Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshū: Nihon Shoki (vol. 1). Shōgakukan. ISBN 978-4-09-658002-8.
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Japan: A Country Study. Federal Research Division.
Preceded by Asuka period |
History of Japan | Succeeded by Heian period |