The Nara period (710–784)

Beginning of the imperial state

In 710 the imperial capital was shifted a short distance from Asuka to Nara. For the next 75 years, with minor gaps, Nara was the seat of government, and the old custom of changing the capital with each successive emperor was finally discarded. During this period, the centralized government provided for under the ritsuryō structure worked reasonably well; it was a time of atypical social mobility based on merit, where those with Chinese learning or Buddhist knowledge enjoyed access to power. Perhaps the most conspicuous feature is the brilliant flowering of culture, especially Buddhist culture. The leaders in its promotion were the emperor Shōmu and his consort, Kōmyō. Immediately on his accession, Shōmu—who from childhood had been given a thorough schooling as future emperor—showed an eager concern to promote the stable livelihood of the people. Convinced that the Buddhist faith was a means to ensure both the happiness of the individual and peace for the country as a whole, he introduced strong doses of Buddhism into his government.

One of the measures he took was the founding of the provincial temples known as kokubunji. Each province was to build a monastery (kokubunji) and a nunnery (kokubun niji), each with a seven-story pagoda and each housing a statue of the Shakyamuni Buddha. Each monastery was to have 20 monks, each nunnery 10 nuns, whose constant task would be to recite the scriptures and offer up prayers for the welfare of the nation. Just as the temporal world had its kokushi (governors) in each province to attend to its administrative and juridical matters, so the spiritual world would have officially appointed monks and nuns, distributed evenly among the provinces, to attend to the spiritual needs of the people.

The second measure taken by Shōmu was the construction of the Tōdai Temple as kokubunji of the capital and the installation within it of a huge bronze figure of the Vairochana Buddha as supreme guardian deity of the nation. The casting of the Great Buddha (Daibutsu) was a tremendously difficult task, but the emperor called on the people at large to contribute to the project, in however humble a way, and thereby partake of the grace of the Buddha. The great image that was produced as a result, though damaged in later ages, still stands in the Tōdai Temple and is famous the world over as the Great Buddha of Nara. The court also tried to attract Chinese monks to Nara. The most important of these was Ganjin (Chinese: Jianzhen), who finally reached Nara in 753 on his sixth attempt and founded the Ritsu sect at Tōshōdai Temple.

The marriage of Buddhism and politics that was Shōmu’s ideal was to cause trouble after his death. The temples gradually amassed vast wealth, and the monks acquired high political positions and began to interfere in secular affairs. A movement to counter such abuses arose among the aristocracy, the leaders of the movement being the Fujiwara family, descendants of Nakatomi Kamatari, who had played an important role in the Taika reforms. Kamatari and his son Fuhito (both later given the surname Fujiwara) had supervised compilation of the Taihō and Yōrō codes that formalized the ritsuryō system and had become prominent figures at court as a new type of bureaucrat-noble. Moreover, Shōmu’s marriage to Fuhito’s second daughter (who became known as the empress Kōmyō) created the precedent for a marital relationship with the imperial house that was to last throughout much of premodern Japanese history. The subsequent progress of the family’s fortunes in the Nara period was not always smooth, however.

In particular, the emphasis on Buddhism undercut the family’s influence. At the end of the 8th century, the powerful priest-premier Dōkyō rose to a position of undisputed hegemony under Shōmu’s daughter, who reigned twice, as the empress Kōken and then as Shōtoku; and Fujiwara nobles feared that the priestly domination of government threatened the future of the nation. Ousting Dōkyō following the death of the empress, they set on the throne a new emperor, Kōnin, who was less enthralled with Buddhism. Kōnin’s son, the emperor Kammu, who was of a similar mind, shifted the capital first to Nagaoka and in 794 to Heian (or Heian-kyō; present Kyōto) to sever connections with the temples of Nara and reestablished government in accordance with the ritsuryō system. Kammu’s accession also represented a shift from the descendants of the emperor Temmu back to those of Tenji, whose base of power was located in Yamashiro province, the site of the new capital.

Culture in the Nara period

The cultural flowering centring on Buddhism was an outcome of lively exchanges with other nations. Four times within 70 years the government sent official missions to the Tang court, each mission accompanied by a large number of students who went to study in China. By this time Tang had formed a great empire that controlled not only the central plains of China but parts of Mongolia and Siberia to the north and of Central Asia to the west.

Nara culture, borrowing from the Tang, whose capital, Chang’an, was a great international city, evinced a marked international flavor itself. The consecration ceremony of the Great Buddha of Tōdai Temple, for example, was conducted by a Brahman high priest born in India, while the music was played by musicians from throughout East Asia.

But despite this internationalism, respect was also shown for traditional Japanese cultural forms. An outstanding example of this respect is the collection of Japanese verse known as Man’yōshū (c. 8th century ce), an anthology of 4,500 poems both ancient and contemporary. Poets represented in the anthology range over all classes of society, from the emperor and members of the imperial family through the aristocracy and the priesthood to farmers, soldiers, and prostitutes; and the scenery celebrated in the verse represents districts throughout the country. The poems deal directly and powerfully with basic human themes, such as love between men and women or between parents and children, and are deeply imbued with the traditional spirit of Japan, scarcely influenced at all by Buddhist or Confucian ideas. The anthology had immense influence on all subsequent Japanese culture.

The compilation of Japan’s two most ancient histories, the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, also took place at the beginning of the 8th century. Both works are extremely important, for they draw on oral or written traditions handed down from much earlier times. The histories—a combination of myth, folk belief, and, as they near the contemporary age, historical fact—were highly political in nature: by stressing the connection between the imperial family and the sun goddess (Amaterasu), they provided a written legitimation of the rule of the imperial house. By purposely dating Japanese history back as far as 660 bce, the compilers sought to raise the level of national sophistication in Chinese and Korean eyes.