ABSTRACT
The eighth century represents a critical period for later Japanese culture, an era whose institutions and ways of thinking helped shape the rest of Japanese history. This chapter focuses on the dynamics of court life in a time when the influence of Chinese institutions and Buddhist thought rushed into the islands. At the dawn of the eighth century, the capital of Japan was Fujiwara-kyo (kyo meaning "capital"), south of present-day Nara. Founded in 694 by Empress Jito (reigned 690-697), Fujiwara-kyo was unusual in that it was the seat of three rulers—Jito; her grandson, Monmu (reigned 697-707); and his mother, Genmei (reigned 707-715). By the close of the eighth century, several key patterns of institutional structure and political thought had been established in Japan. These include the establishment of a major capital city on the Chinese model; an aristocracy grounded in law and based on wealth in landholding; an emerging syncretic royal political ideology.
