Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Heian period ran from 794 to 1185 and is the last division of classical Japanese history. It began when Emperor Kammu moved the capital to Heian-kyo, modern Kyoto, and ended in 1185 when Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power and established the Kamakura shogunate.
Although the Imperial House of Japan held power on the surface, real power rested with the Fujiwara clan, an aristocratic family that had intermarried with the imperial line. By the year 1000, Fujiwara no Michinaga could enthrone and dethrone emperors at will, and the historian George B. Sansom called the Fujiwara hereditary dictators.
The Heian period produced The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, one of the first novels ever written, and The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, written in the 990s. Much of this vernacular literature was written by court women using hiragana, and the period also produced the Iroha poem and the lyrics of the modern national anthem, Kimigayo.
The samurai rose because the conscription system broke down after 792 and the imperial court had no army of its own, relying instead on professional warriors tied to aristocratic shoen estates. The ruling nobility proved incompetent at managing the provinces, and warriors took control of court affairs after the Hogen Rebellion of 1156.
During the Heian period, aristocratic men and women powdered their faces and blackened their teeth in a practice called ohaguro. Women painted their mouths small and red, redrew their eyebrows higher on the forehead, grew long black hair, and wore a complex twelve-layered robe called junihitoe whose colors followed the season.
Two esoteric Buddhist sects emerged during the Heian period, Tendai and Shingon. Tendai was brought to Japan by the monk Saicho and based on the Lotus Sutra, while Shingon was brought by Kukai and based on Vajrayana Buddhism with an emphasis on symbols, rituals, and mandalas.
Chinese influence declined because the imperial missions to Tang China ended in 838, missions that had begun in 630. Tang China was in decline and its Buddhists were severely persecuted, which undermined Japanese respect for Chinese institutions and allowed Japan to turn inward and develop its own culture.