as in Ch’angan, the capital of Tang China, and was enclosed by a 5-meter (16-foot)-high fence. The main street of the capital was a 74-meter (243-foot)-wide thoroughfare, Suzaku Ōji, which ran from Suzakumon, the main palace gate, to Rajōmon, a gate at the southern entrance of the capital. Outside the palace compound were temples, houses, and the east and west market areas. Commerce was allowed only in the market areas, controlled by the government, which brought goods in via canals and the Akishino River that passed by the west market.
Except for several short-lived moves to other cities, Heijōkyō remained the capital of Japan for seventy-four years until the capital was moved to Nagaokakyō in 784 and then to Heiankyō (Kyoto) in 794 where it remained for around 1,000 years.
PLAN OF HEIJŌKYŌ
1 Palace Compound
2 Fujiwara-no-Fuhito Mansion (site of Hokkeji)
3 Nagaya-ō Mansion
4 Tōdaiji Temple
5 Kōfukuji Temple
6 Gangōji Temple
7 Daianji Temple
8 Saidaiji Temple
9 Tōshōdaiji Temple
10 Yakushiji Temple
11 West Market
12 East Market
13 Suzakumon Gate
14 Rajōmon Gate
The Palace
The main buildings in the palace area were the Daigokuden (Hall of State), in which national events such as coronation ceremonies and meetings with foreign delegations took place, and the Chōdōin (government offices). These buildings were Chinese in style, constructed on raised platforms, some of which were faced with brick or stone. Vermilion colored posts supporting the large tiled roof rested on foundation stones. Some of the bays between these posts were open, while others were closed in with white plastered walls.
The first Daigokudenin (Courtyard of the Hall of State) at Heijōkyō, based on a model at the Nara Bunkazai Kenkyūjo (Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute). The first Daigokuden was dismantled and relocated when the capital was moved temporarily in 740. When the capital was moved back to Heijōkyō in 745, a second Daigokuden was built to the east of the first one.
To the north of the Daigokuden, inside a fenced area, was the Dairi, the emperor’s living quarters. Although there is little detailed information about palaces and aristocratic mansions from this period, they seem to have been constructed in the indigenous Japanese style, consisting of a large, undivided central area (moya), part of which was enclosed by walls or doors, with the rest open to one or more raised verandas that were sometimes covered with their own roofs to form extensions known as hisashi. The floor was raised and planked, and the bark roof was either hipped or hipped-and-gable. The main posts were sunk in the ground in the hottatebashira fashion used since prehistoric times, rather than resting on foundation stones. In the Nara Period, these aristocratic residences developed into Shinden style mansions, which take their name from the main hall (shinden). The shinden, the residence of the household head, was flanked on both sides by subsidiary buildings.
Detail from a model at the Nara Bunkazai Kenkyūjo of the mansion of Nagayaō, Minister of the Left, at the beginning of the Nara Period. The Nagayaō mansion was an early form of the Shinden style that became popular in the following Heian Period. It had an elevated plank floor surrounded by a raised veranda, and post-and-beam construction (with the main posts buried in the ground) that made it possible to use sliding doors. Most buildings had shingled or bark- covered roofs but some may have been tiled.
Fujiwara-no-Fuhito, Minister of the Right and the real power behind the imperial court, was the one who oversaw the move of the capital from Fujiwarakyō to Heijōkyō. He was anxious to set the stage for his grandson, Obito-no-Ōji (later Emperor Shōmu), to ascend the throne and expand the Fujiwara power base. Obito-no-Ōji’s palace was constructed in the eastern part of the palace grounds, and the vast residence of Fujiwara-no-Fuhito was built next to this area on the east, but outside the walls.
Class Structure
Government workers were organized into eight ranks. Those in the first five ranks, numbering only about 150, were considered aristocrats, a status conferred by birth. There were about 10,000 bureaucrats in the bottom three ranks and another 10,000 without rank. There was a large gap between the fifth and sixth ranks since bureaucrats could not become aristocrats. Moreover, aristocrats led lives of relative luxury whereas bureaucrats practically lived at their places of work.
Land was allotted according to rank, ranging from four cho of land (one cho was equivalent to 2.4 acres; 1 hectare) for the upper ranks to 250 square meters (2,700 square feet) for unranked bureaucrats. Low-ranking bureaucrats and ordinary people lived in urban dwellings similar to rural farmhouses (minka), consisting of a pit house and one or two buildings that may have been used as workshops or storehouses. It was not until the following Heian Period that town houses, known as machiya, were specially developed for merchants and artisans.
Hōryūji: The Oldest Extant Temple
Buddhist structures employ a post-and-lintel technique in which the eaves of the roof are cantilevered over the verandas by brackets that rest on lintels. The interior of the building (moya) consists of an odd number of bays in width by two in depth. Surrounding the moya are areas one bay in width, which are known as hisashi.
Hōryūji in Nara is the most important temple in Japan, due to its great antiquity, beauty, and architectural integrity. Other extant remains from the temples of early Japan consist of single buildings, or parts of buildings. At Hōryūji, nearly the entire complex has been preserved, providing a priceless insight into the basic principles of continental Buddhist architecture in the early historic period.
Buddhist Architectural Innovations
Buddhism, with its sophisticated doctrines and universal appeal, was a radical departure from the relatively simple nature worship of Shinto; its architecture was radically different as well. First, Chinese Buddhist architecture was based upon cosmological principles that required a strict, usually symmetrical, layout of the temple compound, surrounded by a wall and entered through a formal gateway. In contrast, early Shinto shrines attempted to fit into nature. Secondly, early Buddhist temples were complex and highly ornamental. Buildings were often constructed on a raised earthen podium. Foundation stones, partially buried in the stone-faced, packed earth floors, provided a base for large pillars that held up a massive tiled roof with a complex system of brackets to support the extensive overhang. Posts were colored vermilion, and the spaces between the posts were filled with white plastered walls. The interior was lavishly decorated and often included a magnificent altar. In contrast, early
