The Imperial Court in Kyoto was the nominal ruling government of Japan from 794 AD until the Meiji period (1868–1912), after which the court was moved from Kyoto (formerly

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, mov ...

) to Tokyo (formerly

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

) and integrated into the Meiji government. Upon the court being moved to Kyoto from Nagaoka by Emperor Kanmu (737-806), the struggles for power regarding the throne that had characterized the Nara period diminished. Kyoto was selected as the location for the court because of its "proper" amount of rivers and mountains which were believed to be the most auspicious surroundings for the new capital. The capital itself was built in imitation of

Changan Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin Shi ...

, closely following the theories of yin-yang. The most prominent group of people within the court was the civil aristocracy (

kuge The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese Imperial Court in Kyoto. The ''kuge'' were important from the establishment of Kyoto as the capital during the Heian period in the late 8th century until the rise of the Kamakur ...

) which was the ruling class of society that exercised power on behalf of the emperor. Kyoto's identity as a political, economic, and cultural centre started to be challenged in the post-1185 era with the rise of the shogunate system which gradually seized governance from the emperor. Minamoto no Yoritomo was the first to establish the post of the shōgun as hereditary, receiving the title in 1192. After Yoritomo launched the shogunate, true political power was in the hand of the '' shōguns'', who were mistaken several times for the Emperors of Japan by representatives of Western countries. The Kamakura Shogunate (or Kamakura Bafuku) would go on to last for almost 150 years, from 1185 to 1333.

References

* Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982). Arai Hakuseki, 1712">Arai_Hakuseki.html" ;"title="Arai Hakuseki">Arai Hakuseki, 1712''Tokushi Yoron''; "Lessons from History: the Tokushi yoron" translated by Joynce Ackroyd. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. * Asai T. (1985). ''Nyokan Tūkai''. Tokyo: Kōdansha. * Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. (1979). Jien, c. 1220">Jien.html" ;"title="Jien">Jien, c. 1220 ''Gukanshō">Jien">Jien<_a>,_c._1220.html" ;"title="Jien.html" ;"title="Jien">Jien, c. 1220">Jien.html" ;"title="Jien">Jien, c. 1220 ''Gukanshō; "The Future and the Past: a translation and study of the 'Gukanshō', an interpretive history of Japan written in 1219" translated from the Japanese and edited by Delmer M. Brown & Ichirō Ishida''. Berkeley: University of California Press. * Yukio Ozaki, Ozaki, Yukio. (2001). ''The Autobiography of Ozaki Yukio: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan''. [Translated by Fujiko Hara]. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (cloth) * Ozaki, Yukio. (1955). ''Ozak Gakudō Zenshū''. Tokyo: Kōronsha. * George Bailey Sansom, Sansom, George (1958). ''A History of Japan to 1334''. Stanford:

Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...

. * Sansom, George. (1952). ''Japan: A Short Cultural History''. Stanford:

. (cloth) (paper) * Screech, Timon. (2006). ''Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822''. London:

RoutledgeCurzon Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

. * Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652">Hayashi_Gahō.html" ;"title="iyun-sai Rin-siyo/ iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652 ''Nipon o daï itsi ran">Hayashi Gahō">iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652">Hayashi_Gahō.html" ;"title="iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō">iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652 ''Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon, tr. par M. Isaac Titsingh avec l'aide de plusieurs interprètes attachés au comptoir hollandais de Nangasaki; ouvrage re., complété et cor. sur l'original japonais-chinois, accompagné de notes et précédé d'un Aperçu d'histoire mythologique du Japon, par M. J. Klaproth''. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society">Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Irelandbr>...Click link to digitized, full-text copy of this book (in French)
* Ury, Marian. (1999). "Chinese Learning and Intellectual Life", ''The Cambridge history of Japan: Heian Japan''. Vol. II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (cloth) * Varley, H. Paul, ed. (1980). [ Kitabatake Chikafusa, 1359], ''Jinnō Shōtōki ("A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa" translated by H. Paul Varley)''. New York: Columbia University Press. {{coord missing, Kyoto Prefecture Japanese monarchy Royal and noble courts Former capitals of Japan History of Kyoto ja:京都御所

References

See also

Further reading