Fujiwara-kyō
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

280px, Map of Fujiwara-kyō was the Imperial
capital of Japan The capital of Japan is Tokyo."About Japan"
The Government of Japan. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
for sixteen years, between 694 and 710. It was located in
Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...
(present-day Kashihara in
Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...
), having been moved from nearby Asuka, and remained the capital until its relocation to
Heijō-kyō was the Capital of Japan during most of the Nara period, from 710 to 740 and again from 745 to 784. The imperial palace is a listed UNESCO World Heritage together with other places in the city of Nara (cf. Historic Monuments of Ancient ...
present-day
Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...
. It was the first in Japanese history to have been a
planned city A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
based on a square grid pattern modeled after the
Chang'an Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...
, the capital of
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
.


History

Per the ''
Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...
'' in the 5th year of
Emperor Tenmu was the 40th Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 天武天皇 (40) retrieved 2013-8-22. according to the traditional order of succession. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan'', p. 53. He ascended ...
's reign (676), the emperor began selecting the site of a new capital. Construction work was carried out over a number of years, based on the different standards of grid-like grids discovered during excavations, and was halted by the emperor's death. It was resumed in 690 under
Empress Jitō was the 41st emperor of Japan, monarch of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 持統天皇 (41)/ref> according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Jitō's reign spanned the years from Jitō period, 68 ...
and continued under the reigns of Emperor Mommu and
Empress Genmei , also known as Empress Genmyō, was the 43rd monarch of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 元明天皇 (43) retrieved August 22, 2013. according to the traditional order of succession. Genmei's reign spanned the years 707 through ...
. Empress Genmei (661–721) moved the capital from Fujiwara-kyō to Nara (then
Heijō-kyō was the Capital of Japan during most of the Nara period, from 710 to 740 and again from 745 to 784. The imperial palace is a listed UNESCO World Heritage together with other places in the city of Nara (cf. Historic Monuments of Ancient ...
) in 710 mainly to carry out the wishes of her son Emperor Monmu (683–707), who was the previous occupant of the throne and had ordered in 697 to search for a new proper capital site. According to Delmer Brown, the reason for Monmu to found a new capital may be that he was influenced by the ancient belief that a new Emperor should reign at a new capital and that Nara was intended to be the capital for his son Shōmu. Archaeological evidence indicates that construction of the corridor surrounding the palace was still ongoing even at the time the decision to move the capital to Heijō was made in 708, suggesting the possibility that Fujiwara-kyō was abandoned unfinished. This waka poem, written by
Empress Jitō was the 41st emperor of Japan, monarch of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 持統天皇 (41)/ref> according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Jitō's reign spanned the years from Jitō period, 68 ...
, describes Fujiwara in the summer: However, the name "Fujiwara-kyō" itself was never used in the ''Nihon Shoki''; during those times it was recorded as . The name "Fujiwara-kyō" was first coined in an academic paper in 1913 by Kida Sadakichi, a pioneer of Fujiwara-kyō research, in 1913, with the justification that the imperial palace at the time was called "Fujiwara-miya" in the ''Nihon Shoki'', and this term came to be the accepted academic nomenclature.


Fujiwara-kyō extent and layout

In early research, Fujiwara-kyō was assumed to be located inside the Yamato Sanzan ( Mount Miminashi to the north,
Mount Unebi is a mountain in the city of Kashihara, in the central-western part Nara Prefecture, Japan. Together with Mount Amanokagu and Mount Miminashi, it belongs to the so-called " Yamato Sanzan", in which it is the highest. At the foot of the mount ...
to the west, and Mount Amanokagu to the east), and was thought to be a rectangle of 12 rows and 8 blocks measuring 2.1 kilometers east-to-west and 3.2 kilometers north-to-south, with Fujiwara Palace located slightly north of the center. However, with the discovery of the east-west Kyōgoku-ōji street in the 1990s, the complete layout to be 5.3 kilometers (10 ri) square, or at least 25 km2, surpassing both
Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180. Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, mo ...
(23 km2) and Heijō-kyō (24 km2), and encompassed the site of the old Asuka-kyō to the south. A distinctive feature of the capital is that, unlike Heijo-kyō, and Heian-kyō, which were built in the Northern Court style with the palace and government offices in the north, Fujiwara Palace, which contained the Imperial Palace and government offices, was located almost in the center of the capital. It is believed that this was designed based on the ideal capital city construction described in the "
Kaogongji The ''Kaogongji'', ''Kaogong Ji'', or ''Kao Gong Ji'', variously translated as ''The Record of Trades'', ''Records of Examination of Craftsman'', ''Book of Diverse Crafts'', and ''The Artificers' Record'', is an ancient Chinese work on science a ...
" (Record of the Winter Palace) in
Rites of Zhou The ''Rites of Zhou'' (), originally known as "Officers of Zhou" (), is a Chinese work on bureaucracy and organizational theory. It was renamed by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the '' Book of History'' by the same name. To rep ...
(Records of the
Zhou Dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou period (771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji, had military ...
), rather than imitating Chang'an, as a sign of Emperor Tenmu's rivalry with the Tang Dynasty. The grid pattern within an area of 5.3 kilometers east-to-west (20 grids) and 4.8 kilometers north-to-south (18 grids). Suzaku-oji, the main street, ran north and south from Fujiwara Palace, dividing the city into east and west halves. The Fujiwara-kyō Suzaku-oji was not as wide as later Heijō-kyō and Heian-kyō, which were more than 70 meters wide, but was very narrow, just over 24 meters wide (between the centers of the gutters). There is a theory that Suzaku-oji and Rajomon on the south side of the Asuka River were not developed in the capital due to lack of archaeological evidence and the presence of a number of large Buddhist temples in that area. It is clear that the city also existed to the north of the palace. The grid pattern is thought to have been omitted in the area that covers the Yamato Sanzan mountains, but the group of ''
kofun are megalithic tombs or tumulus, tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century AD.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞 ...
''
burial mounds A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. ...
in the site was leveled, except for the mausoleums of
Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the and . His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"Emperor Suizei , also known as , was the second legend, legendary emperor of Japan according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Very little is known about this Emperor due to a lack of material available for further verification ...
. Fujiwara-kyō did not have any external defenses, and there were no walls or fortified gates surrounding the capital. 210401 One-thousandth scale model of Aramashinomiyako.jpg, 210401 One-thousandth scale model of Aramashinomiyako Fujiwara-kyo Kashihara Nara pref Japan03bs5.jpg, Site of the 藤原宮跡出土 木簡「上挟国阿波評松里」 (複製).JPG, Mokkan Fujiwara-kyo Kashihara Nara pref Japan04bs5.jpg, Excavation site


Fujiwara Palace

As a result of the archaeological investigation of Fujiwara Palace, traces of streets of the same grid standard were found within the palace grounds. Normally, there should be no streets for the general public to walk on within the palace, so this indicates that site for Fujiwara-kyo was laid out grid-like streets throughout the entire area, and then the location and extent of the palace were determined and the streets in that area were abolished. This was also the case with the site of the temple of Yakushi-ji. Fujiwara Palace was approximately one kilometer square. It was surrounded by a wall about 5 meters high, and there were 12 gates in total, three on each side. The central gate on the south side was the Suzaku Gate, which was the main entrance. The wall structure consisted of pillars spaced 2.7 meters apart, a 5.5 meters high, which supported a tiled roof, and 25 cm thick rammed earthen walls filling the spaces between. During the excavation of Heijō Palace, some of the walls that had been reused from Fujiwara Palace were discovered. Important buildings were built on foundation stones, and are believed to be the first Japanese palace buildings to be covered with
roof tile Roof tiles are overlapping tiles designed mainly to keep out precipitation such as rain or snow, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as clay or slate. Later tiles have been made from materials such as concrete, glass ...
s in the Chinese style. Approximately 1,200 wooden tablets have been excavated from the palace site. Some record names of government agencies such as "Ministry of Central Affairs" and "Ministry of the Imperial Household," as well as the names of high-ranking officials at the time, and contain historical materials not found in later historical documents such as the ''Nihon Shoki''. Others are written with spells or symbols written on them to prevent or drive away evil spirits and demons that cause disasters. They appeared in the 7th century. There are eight examples from the 7th century all over Japan, six of which have been excavated from the Fujiwara Palace ruins. The site of the palace has become a historic park. About 60% of the Fujiwara Palace ruins are designated as a Special National Historic Site. In January 2007, the Japanese government included "Asuka-Fujiwara: Archaeological Sites of Japan's Ancient Capitals and Related Properties" on the tentative list, which is a prerequisite for World Heritage registration. Since 2006, with the cooperation of the Asuka-Fujiwara Site Development Cooperation Committee comprising five neighboring towns (Daigo-cho, Kinomoto-cho, Nawate-cho, Bessho-cho, and Takadono-cho), the Fujiwara Palace Site Flower Garden Planting Project has been carried out to raise awareness of the Fujiwara Palace site among a wider audience. In spring, approximately 2.5 million Nanohana blossoms are planted on about 20,000 square meters. In summer, about 1 million yellow cosmos flowers are planted on approximately 7,000 square meters, along with 11 varieties of lotus on around 3,000 square meters. In autumn, about 3 million
cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...
flowers are planted on approximately 30,000 square meters. File:Fujiwara Palace, Nelumbo Nucifera (lotus) 01.jpg, Lotus File:Fujiwara Palace, Cosmos Sulphureus (yellow cosmos) 01.jpg, Yellow Cosmos File:Fujiwara Palace, Cosmos Field 2023.jpg,
Cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...


See also

*
Fujiwara clan The was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...
* List of Historic Sites of Japan (Nara)


References

* Frederic, Louis (2002). "Japan Encyclopedia." Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.


External links

*
Exhibition Room of Fujiwara Imperial Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fujiwara-kyo 690 establishments Former capitals of Japan Asuka period Planned capitals Special Historic Sites