The Nara and Heian periods mark the height of China's influence on Japan. It makes sense thatJapan had an insatiable desire to learn and copy from China sinceat the time China was regarded as the richest, most influentialand most technologically advanced country of the time. Koreawould also influence Japan throughout its history but not nearlyto the extent that China did.
Nara(710AD-794AD)
An elaboratecapital was built at Nara. It was decorated with gold, silk andexotic wood. Nara was also a huge Buddhist gathering ground. The capital's design was based on thedesign of the Chinese capital of the time, Ch'ang-an.
The Nara period showed a huge gap between the Japanese artistocracy to the rest of the Japanesepeople. For instance, Buddhism was mainly the religion of theinhabitants of Nara. Buddhism played a key role in politics,however. Many of the emperors of the Nara era believed in the Sutraof Golden Light which stated that Buddha was the 'Law orTruth of the universe.' It also proclaimed that each person hadan innate moral code. The spread of Buddhism to the commonpopulation was starting though with some missionaries during thistime period, most notably Gyoki (668AD-749AD). Gyoki encouragedcharitable works and raised funds forthe Todaiji temple, thetemple that hosts the Daibutsu, the huge bronze Buddha statue.
The aristocracy also replaced local chieftains with their own appointed governors. However,they had little to no control over these governors who ruledhowever they pleased.
The Nara period also marked arenaissance period. Japan learned to make beautiful sculpture andChinese-inspired architecture. History was also just starting to bewritten down during this time period while the Japanese languagewas being refined due to Chinese language influence. The Kojiki(Record of Ancient Matters), the first written history ofJapan was published in 712. The Nihon Shoki (Chronicles ofJapan) was published in 720. Also, Japan's first poetryanthology, The Collection of Ten Thousand (Myriad) Leaves(Man'yoshu) is written. The anthology contains 4,516 poems.
Heian(794AD-1185AD)
Though there was a definiteperiod of peace during the Nara period, evident in the fact thatthe capital had no protecting fortress or moat surrounding it,the Heian period is regarded as a period of unprecedent securityfor Japan. Though there was cultural flowering had occurredduring the Nara period, it was more pronounced during the Heian period.
In 795 AD, the capital was movedto Heian-kyo, present-day Kyoto. Heian-kyo translates to"city of peace" since the movement of the capitalstopped some of the power struggles for the throne that hadmarked the Nara period. Heian stayed Japan's capital for over1,000 years.
The Heian government wassignificant in that it kept the reforms of the Yamato and Naraperiods and make them stronger. The hierarchy was also moredefined. The Tenno or "Divine Emperor" headed thegovernment as both a Confucian and Shinto figurehead, whoreceived power by virtue of the Mandate of Heaven- descent fromShinto's Sun Goddess, Amaterasu.
The Japanese were alsoinfluenced by China's T'ang Council of the State. There weredifferences between China's Council of the State and Japan's andthese mainly resulted int he fact that China was larger and moreurban while Japan, excluding the capital, was still very behindin the areas of technology and modern innovations. The largestand most influential clans fought for the Council of Stateposition since the position held the power to control not justthe emperor but the entire government as well. These familiesalso held huge estates and were gathering large private armies. During the Naraperiod, an army was attempted to be conscripted but that proveddisastrous. During theHeian period, the government would rely more on these privatearmies for their military than their own forces,local horsebackmilitia owing their allegiance to the emperor, but laterbelonging to private armies. The samurai of this time were notthe samurai that we usually remember. These samurai were peasantsand farmers who were hired to fight bloody wars rather thanknights in shining armor. Because of the importance of thesearmies to the government, the two most formidable samurai clansgrew in importance. They were the Taira (aka the Heike) oreastern and western Japan and the Minamoto (aka the Genji) of eastern Japan.
The Heian periodmarked the rise of the powerful Fujiwara family, who married intothe imperial family, and the rise of the warrior class (samurai).The Fujiwara remained supreme for over three centuries, but were not without competition forthe reins of government. For instance in 1155, the thronesuccession fell vacant and when Go-Shirakawa was named emperor, asmall revolution was set off. The Hogen Disturbance was ended bythe Taira and the Minamoto, which set the precedent for theleading warrior clans to settle future state affairs.
Religion and Art
Buddhism was still growing asquickly during the Heian era as in the Nara period. A Buddhistnamed Kukai (774-835AD) developed the 'True Words' or ShingonI, which held the belief that every human possesses thethree mysteries of Buddhism: body, speech and mind. According tothis belief, these three mysteries held the secret to theuniverse and it was only through these faculties that the secretscould unfold to a human. Mysteries of the body involve variousmethods of meditations. The mind mysteries were various ways ofperceiving truth. The 'True Words' themselves made up themysteries of speech. These mysteries were passed down fromteacher to student only by word of mouth, since it was believedthat the 'True Words' transcended speech. Kukai believed beautyrevealed truth and therefore encouraged the improvement ofartistic skill. As a result, the monkes of this religion hadbeautiful art and were very popular at the Heian court andinfluenced a Heian renaissance on Japanese culture, poetry and art.
The arts flourished as courtiers refined the Japanese arts of calligraphy and flower arranging. Japan was desperately trying to break awayfrom Chinese inflence at this point. They tried to make a writingsystem different from the Chinese style. Literature was alsogrowing as Murasaki Shikibu wrote the classic Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) and Sei Shonagon wrote the Pillow Book, a compilation of essays.