ABSTRACT

The year 794 saw the move of the Japanese capital westwards from Nara to a new site, modern Kyoto. The new capital was named Feian-kyau 平安京 ‘capital of eternal peace’, though it was more commonly known simply as kyau 京 ‘capital’ or miyako 都/京. Despite a brief relocation southwards in 1180, a rival emperor and imperial capital between 1336 and 1392, and the location of actual government in different cities further east during the Kamakura (1185– or rather 1192–1333) and Edo (1603–1868) periods of shogunal rule, and the lack of any centralized control during most of the period in-between, the city remained the official imperial capital of Japan till the late nineteenth century. The 200 years after the establishment of the capital saw the golden age of Japanese literature, the Heian period (794–1185), and the literary language that developed during this period was the basis of most Japanese-language writing till the start of the twentieth century.