Heian period
The Heian period ran from 794 to 1185, the last division of classical Japanese history. It began when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyo, the city known today as Kyoto. On the surface the Imperial House of Japan held power. In practice, real power rested with a single aristocratic family who had married their way into the bloodline. This was an age with no national currency, where rice changed hands instead of coins, and where a poorly written poem could ruin a courtier's reputation. It was also a peace so long that some argue it left almost everyone poor while a tiny elite pursued beauty and verse. How did a court devoted to graceful poetry end with warriors seizing the country? Who were the women writing Japan's most famous books while men clung to Chinese script? And why did an empire that looked stable for centuries dissolve into private armies?
By the year 1000, Fujiwara no Michinaga could enthrone and dethrone emperors at will. The Fujiwara clan had intermarried with the imperial family, and most emperors of the era had Fujiwara mothers. One member became the first head of the Emperor's Private Office. Another became regent, Sessho, for his grandson, a minor emperor, while yet another was appointed Kampaku. The historian George B. Sansom called them hereditary dictators.
Emperor Daigo, who reigned from 897 to 930, briefly suspended the Fujiwara regency and ruled directly. Even then the family was not demoted. They grew stronger during his reign, acquiring ever larger shoen estates and greater wealth in the early 10th century. Within decades of Daigo's death, the Fujiwara had absolute control over the court. Government affairs were handled through the clan's private administration, and little authority was left for traditional institutions.
Not every emperor accepted this. Toward the end of the 9th century, several rulers tried and failed to check the family. The first emperor not born of a Fujiwara mother since the 9th century would not arrive until Go-Sanjo, who reigned from 1068 to 1073, and his reforms would begin to pry the clan's fingers loose.
In 838 the imperial-sanctioned missions to Tang China ended, missions that had begun in 630. Tang China was in decline and Chinese Buddhists were severely persecuted, which undermined Japanese respect for Chinese institutions. The influx of Chinese exports halted, and Japan began to turn inward.
Emperor Kammu had patterned the Heian capital on the Chinese Tang capital at Chang'an, as Nara had been, but on a larger scale. His administrative framework, the Ritsuryo Code, tried to recreate the Tang legal system despite what was described as the tremendous differences in the levels of development between the two countries. Kammu avoided drastic reform, which lowered the intensity of political struggles, and he became recognized as one of Japan's most forceful emperors.
Kammu had abandoned universal conscription in 792, yet he still waged offensives against the Emishi in northern and eastern Japan, possible descendants of the displaced Jomon. After temporary gains in 794, he appointed a new commander in 797, Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, under the title Seii Taishogun, the barbarian-subduing generalissimo. By 801 the shogun had defeated the Emishi and extended the imperial domains to the eastern end of Honshu. Even so, imperial control over the provinces was tenuous at best, and the great families would soon disregard the land and tax systems imposed from Kyoto.
Three women in the late 10th and early 11th centuries left lasting records of life and romance at the Heian court. The Kagero Nikki was written by the mother of Fujiwara Michitsuna. The Pillow Book came from Sei Shonagon. The Tale of Genji, one of the first novels ever written, came from Murasaki Shikibu. Much of this vernacular literature was written by court women who had not been trained in Chinese as their male counterparts had.
Katakana, a simplified script developed from parts of Chinese characters, was abbreviated into hiragana, a cursive syllabary with a writing method uniquely Japanese. Hiragana gave written expression to the spoken word. Although written Chinese, kanbun, remained the official language of the imperial court, the spread of kana brought a boom in Japanese literature.
Poetry was a staple of court life. Nobles and ladies-in-waiting were expected to write verse as a mark of status, and any occasion could call for it, from the birth of a child to a pretty scene of nature. The Japanese of this period believed handwriting could reflect the condition of a person's soul, so poor or hasty writing could be taken as a sign of poor breeding. Sei Shonagon records in her Pillow Book that when a courtier asked her advice on writing a poem to the Empress Sadako, she had to politely rebuke him because his writing was so poor.
The lyrics of the modern Japanese national anthem, Kimigayo, were written in this period. So was the famous poem known as the Iroha, of uncertain authorship. The era produced poets such as Ariwara no Narihira, Ono no Komachi, Izumi Shikibu, Saigyo and Fujiwara no Teika, and vividly colored yamato-e paintings of court life that set patterns for Japanese art to this day.
Beauty was widely considered part of what made a person good during the Heian period. Aristocratic men and women powdered their faces and blackened their teeth, a practice called ohaguro. The male courtly ideal included a faint mustache and a thin goatee.
Women's mouths were painted small and red, and their eyebrows were plucked or shaved and redrawn higher on the forehead, a style called hikimayu. Women cultivated shiny, black flowing hair. A courtly woman's formal dress included a complex twelve-layered robe called junihitoe, though the actual number of layers varied.
Costumes were determined by office and season. A woman's robes followed a system of color combinations representing flowers, plants, and animals tied to a specific season or month. These layered colors carried as much meaning as a title, and the same junihitoe still appears today in festivals across Japan.
By the year 1000, the government no longer knew how to issue currency, and money was gradually disappearing. Rice became the primary unit of exchange. The lack of a solid medium of exchange shows up in novels of the time, where messengers were rewarded with useful objects such as an old silk kimono rather than paid a fee.
The aristocratic beneficiaries of Heian culture, the Ryomin or Good People, numbered about 5,000 in a land of perhaps five million. Control of rice fields gave families like the Fujiwara a key source of income and a base of power. The shoen system let an aristocratic elite accumulate wealth, and that economic surplus can be linked to the period's cultural flowering and pursuit of arts.
The peace had a darker side. The Fujiwara rulers failed to maintain adequate police forces, leaving robbers free to prey on travelers. This terror shows in the novels of the time through the fear that night travel inspired in their characters. One reason the samurai were able to take power was that the ruling nobility proved incompetent at managing Japan and its provinces.
Mount Hiei rose just outside the new capital, and on it sat the monastery complex of the Tendai sect. Tendai is the Japanese version of the Tiantai school from China, based on the Lotus Sutra, one of the most important sutras in Mahayana Buddhism. The monk Saicho brought it to Japan and sought independent ordination for Tendai monks. A close relationship grew between Mount Hiei and the imperial court at the foot of the mountain, and Tendai emphasized great reverence for the emperor and the nation. Emperor Kammu himself was a notable patron.
Shingon offered a different path. It is the Japanese version of the Zhenyen school from China, based on Vajrayana Buddhism, and it was brought to Japan by the monk Kukai. Shingon emphasizes symbols, rituals, incantations, and mandalas, which gave it wide appeal. Kukai impressed the emperors who succeeded Kammu not only with his holiness but also with his poetry, calligraphy, painting, and sculpture.
Tendai held that enlightenment was accessible to every creature. Both Kukai and Saicho aimed to connect state and religion and to secure support from the aristocracy, producing what is called aristocratic Buddhism. In 819 Kukai founded the monastery of Mount Koya, in the northeast portion of modern-day Wakayama Prefecture.
After the conscription system broke down following 792, local power holders again became the primary source of military strength. The imperial court had no army of its own and relied instead on professional warriors, the oryoshi appointed to a province and the tsuibushi appointed over imperial circuits or specific tasks. As shoen holders gained better bows, armor, horses, and swords during the 9th century, military service became part of estate life, and the provincial upper class was transformed into a new elite of samurai.
The Fujiwara family, the Taira clan, and the Minamoto clan, all descended from the imperial family, were among the most prominent supported by this new class. A struggle for succession came to a head in 1156 when Fujiwara no Yorinaga sided with the retired emperor against the heir apparent in the Hogen Rebellion. The Fujiwara were destroyed and the insei system left powerless as warriors took control of court affairs. In 1159 the Taira and Minamoto clashed in the Heiji Rebellion, beginning a twenty-year period of Taira ascendancy.
Taira no Kiyomori emerged as the real power. He filled no fewer than 50 government posts with relatives, rebuilt the Inland Sea, and encouraged trade with Song China. He gave his daughter Tokuko in marriage to the young emperor Takakura, who died at only 19, leaving their infant son Antoku to succeed. Kiyomori also exiled 45 court officials and razed two troublesome temples, Todai-ji and Kofuku-ji.
In 1183, two years after Kiyomori's death, Minamoto no Yoritomo sent his brothers Yoshitsune and Noriyori to attack Kyoto. The Taira were routed and forced to flee. The Empress Dowager tried to drown herself and the 6-year-old emperor. He perished, but his mother survived. Takakura's other son succeeded as Emperor Go-Toba. With Yoritomo established, the bakufu system that would govern Japan for the next seven centuries fell into place. He was granted authority to appoint military governors, the shugo, and stewards, the jito. Three years later he was appointed shogun in Kyoto, and in 1185 the Kamakura period began as his family seized power from the emperors.
Common questions
When was the Heian period in Japanese history?
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.
Who really held power during the Heian period?
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.
What famous literature came from the Heian period?
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.
Why did the samurai rise to power in the Heian period?
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.
What did beauty and dress look like in the Heian period?
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.
What Buddhist sects emerged during the Heian period?
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.
Why did Chinese influence decline during the Heian period?
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.
All sources
1 references cited across the entry
- 1bookHandbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern JapanWilliam E. Deal — Infobase Publishing — 2005