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Fujiwara-kyo (???, in Japanese also Fujiwara no miyako), was the Imperial capital of Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 for sixteen years between 694 and 710. It was located in Yamato Province
Yamato Province

was a Provinces of Japan of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshu. It was also called . At first, the name was written with one different character , and for about ten years after 737, this was revised to use more desirable characters ....
, specifically, present-day Kashihara in Nara prefecture
Nara Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan in the Kansai region on Honshu Island, Japan. The capital is the city of Nara, Nara....
, having been moved from nearby Asuka
Asuka, Yamato

was one of the Imperial capitals of Japan during the Asuka period , which takes its name from this place. It is located in the present-day village of Asuka, Nara, Nara Prefecture....
. However, in the Nihonshiki, the name Fujiwara-kyo had never been used. During those times it was recorded as Aramashi-kyo.

Ongoing excavations on the site has, as of 2006, revealed the city was already being prepared from as early as 682, close to the end of Emperor Temmu
Emperor Temmu

was the 40th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He ruled from 672 until his death in 686....
 era.






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Fujiwara-kyo (???, in Japanese also Fujiwara no miyako), was the Imperial capital of Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 for sixteen years between 694 and 710. It was located in Yamato Province
Yamato Province

was a Provinces of Japan of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshu. It was also called . At first, the name was written with one different character , and for about ten years after 737, this was revised to use more desirable characters ....
, specifically, present-day Kashihara in Nara prefecture
Nara Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan in the Kansai region on Honshu Island, Japan. The capital is the city of Nara, Nara....
, having been moved from nearby Asuka
Asuka, Yamato

was one of the Imperial capitals of Japan during the Asuka period , which takes its name from this place. It is located in the present-day village of Asuka, Nara, Nara Prefecture....
. However, in the Nihonshiki, the name Fujiwara-kyo had never been used. During those times it was recorded as Aramashi-kyo.

Ongoing excavations on the site has, as of 2006, revealed the city was already being prepared from as early as 682, close to the end of Emperor Temmu
Emperor Temmu

was the 40th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He ruled from 672 until his death in 686....
 era. With an interim halt on Emperor Temmu
Emperor Temmu

was the 40th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He ruled from 672 until his death in 686....
's death, the construction has resumed under the reign of Empress Jito
Empress Jito

was the 41st Emperors of Japan of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. She was the fourth woman to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne....
, who has officially moved the capital in 694. Fujiwara-kyo further served as capital for the reigns of Emperor Mommu
Emperor Mommu

Emperor Mommu was the 42nd Emperor of Japan of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 697 through 707....
, and Empress Gemmei
Empress Gemmei

was the 43rd Emperor of Japan of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. This sovereign is sometimes identified as Empress Genmyo....
, and the subsequent capital move in 710, to the Heijo Palace
Heijo Palace

in Nara, Nara, was the Imperial Palace of Japan , during most of the Nara Period. The Palace was located in the north end of the capital city, Heijo-kyo....
 in Nara
Nara, Nara

is the capital cities of Japan of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture....
, marked the beginning of the Nara period
Nara period

The of the history of Japan covers the years from AD 710 to 794. Empress Gemmei established the capital of Heijo-kyo . Except for 5 years , when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capital of Japanese civilization until Emperor Kammu established a new capital, Nagaoka-kyo, in 784 before moving to Heian-kyo , or Kyoto, a decade lat...
.

Fujiwara was Japan's first capital to have its streets laid out in a grid pattern on the model of Chinese capital system (??? jobo-sei); recent diggings and studies have revealed that the city covered an area of roughly 5km x 5km, a much bigger size than it was believed to be previously. The palace occupied a plot measuring about 1km square, and was surrounded by walls roughly 5m high. Each of the four walls had three gates; Suzakumon (???, Suzaku-mon), the main gate, stood at the center of the south wall. The Daigokuden and other palace buildings were the first palace structures in Japan to have a tile roof in the Chinese style.

The town had previously been the domain of the Nakatomi clan
Nakatomi clan

The Nakatomi clan was an influential clan in Classical Japan. Along with the Inbe clan, the Nakatomi were one of two priestly clans which oversaw certain important national rites, and one of many to claim descent from divine clan ancestors "only a degree less sublime than the imperial ancestors"....
, who oversaw on behalf of the imperial court the observation of Shinto
Shinto

is the former state religion of Japan and remains the most common name for the nation's non-Buddhist ethnic religion practices. It was formed from disparate local mythologies, beginning with the Kojiki of 712, into an imperial cult called State Shinto that solidified in the Meiji period....
 rituals and ceremonies. The city burnt down in 711, one year after the move to Nara, and was not rebuilt. Archeological excavations began in 1934, and some portions of the palace were reconstructed. Close to 10,000 wooden tablets, known as mokkan, were found, inscribed with Chinese characters.

This waka
Waka (poetry)

Waka or Yamato uta is a classical Japanese poetry form and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. The term was coined during the Heian period, and was used to distinguish Japanese-language poetry from Kanshi , Chinese-language poetry written by Japanese poets, and later from renga....
, written by the Empress Jito
Empress Jito

was the 41st Emperors of Japan of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. She was the fourth woman to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne....
, and describing Fujiwara in the summer, is quite famous:

???????????????????????? haru-sugite natsu-kitarurashi shirotae-no koromo-hoshitaru amanokaguyama

See also

  • Capital of Japan
    Capital of Japan

    Tokyo, the seat of the Government of Japan and home of the Emperor of Japan, is de-facto Capital of Japan. This is generally not in dispute, but it is not legally defined....
  • Fujiwara clan