ABSTRACT
In 710, in the reign of the Empress Gemmyô, the capital was fixed at Nara. The step was a natural consequence of the Reforms of Taikwa, for a centralized administration requires a centre and the exahiple of China doubtless weighed with educated Japanese. I t was also popular, for the frequent construction of new palaces under the old system had meant onerous demands for forced labour and the clergy were favourable. I t seemed most suitable to surround the sovereign and ministers with temples and monasteries which could bring religious influence to bear on their decisions, and the powerful Hoss5 sect lost no time in establishing itself. The new city was constructed at the western extremity of the modern Nara, and in the same year the temple of Kofukuji was moved to the site where its remains still stand. The great Kamatari had originally built it at Yamashina, but in those days temples were transferred as easily as palaces : it was shifted in 672 to Unasaki, and in 710 Kamatari’s son, Fujiwara Fuhito, removed it to the capital, where it became the cathedral of the northern branch of the sect and the residence of the ambitious priest Genbô. The still more eminent Gyôgi belonged to the southern branch which had its headquarters, at Gangôji.1 Shinto, however, was not neglected, for in the same year, 710, Fuhito also dedicated the celebrated Kasuga shrine, which still exists, to the tutelary deities of the Fujiwara family.
