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{{Short description|Historical period of Japan from CE 710 to 794}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = Nippon ({{lang|ja|日本}})<br/>Wa-koku ({{lang|ja|和国}})
| conventional_long_name = Nippon<br/>Wakoku
| image_coat = 
| symbol_type = 
| common_name            = Nippon
| year_start             = 710
| year_end               = 794
| p1                     = Asuka period
| image_map                = [[File:Gokishichido.svg|200px]]
| map_caption  = Gokishichidō system showing ancient regions and provinces during the Nara period after the introduction of the Yōrō Code (720)
| s1                     = Heian Period
| event_start            = Established at [[Nara (city)|Nara]]
| event_end              = Capital moved to [[Heian-kyō]]
| event1                 = [[735–737 Japanese smallpox epidemic|Japanese smallpox epidemic]]
| date_event1            = 735–737
| event2                 = [[Fujiwara no Hirotsugu rebellion]]
| date_event2            = 740
| event3                 = Kuni-kyō, Naniwa-kyō, and Shigarakinomiya as capital
| date_event3            = 740–745 
| event4                 = [[Yōrō Code]] promulgated
| date_event4            = 757 
|event5     = [[Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion]]
|date_event5   = 764
| event6                 = Capital moved to Nagaoka-kyō
| date_event6            = 784
| capital                = [[Heijō-kyō]] (710–740; 745–784)<br>[[Kuni-kyō]] (740–744)<br>[[Naniwa-kyō]] (744–745)<br>[[Shigaraki, Shiga|Shigarakinomiya]] (745)<br>[[Nagaoka-kyō]] (784–794)
| official_languages     = [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
| government_type        = [[Examples of feudalism|Feudal]] [[monarchy]]
| title_leader           = [[Emperor of Japan|Emperor]]
| leader1                = [[Empress Genmei|Genmei]]
| year_leader1           = 710–721
| leader2                = [[Emperor Kanmu]]
| year_leader2           = 781–794
|title_deputy = [[Daijō-daijin]]
| deputy1 = [[Fujiwara no Nakamaro]]
| year_deputy1 = 760-764
| deputy2 = [[Dōkyō]]
| year_deputy2 = 765-766 
| religion               = [[Buddhism in Japan|Buddhism]]<br>[[Shinto]]
| common_languages       = [[Old Japanese]]
| currency               = 
}}
{{History of Japan | classical|image=Daibutsu of Todaiji 3.jpg |caption=}}
The {{nihongo|'''Nara period'''|奈良時代|Nara jidai|{{IPA|ja|na.ɾa (d)ʑiꜜ.dai}}<ref name=daijirin>{{cite book|script-title=ja:[[Daijirin|大辞林]]|publisher=[[Sanseidō]]|editor-last=Matsumura|editor-first=Akira|edition=4th|date=5 September 2019|lang=ja}}</ref>}} of the [[history of Japan]] covers the years from 710 to 794.<ref>Dolan, Ronald E. and Worden, Robert L., ed. (1994) "Nara and Heian Periods, A.D. 710–1185" ''Japan: A Country Study''. [[Library of Congress]], Federal Research Division.</ref> [[Empress Genmei]] established the capital of [[Heijō-kyō]] (present-day [[Nara, Nara|Nara]]). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capital of Japanese civilization until [[Emperor Kanmu]] established a new capital, [[Nagaoka-kyō]], in 784, before moving to [[Heian-kyō]], modern [[Kyoto]], a decade later in 794.

Japanese society during this period was predominantly agricultural and centered on [[village]] life. Most of the villagers followed [[Shinto|Shintō]], a religion based on the worship of natural and ancestral spirits named ''[[kami]].''

The capital at Nara was modeled after [[Chang'an]], the capital city of the [[Tang dynasty]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Ellington|first=Lucien|title=Japan|url=https://archive.org/details/japanasiafocus00elli|url-access=limited|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara|isbn=978-1-59884-162-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/japanasiafocus00elli/page/n44 28]}}</ref> In many other ways, the Japanese upper classes patterned themselves after the Chinese, including adopting the Chinese writing system, Chinese fashion, and a Chinese version of [[Buddhism]].

==Literature==
Concerted efforts by the [[Emperors of Japan|imperial court]] to record its history produced the first works of [[Japanese literature]] during the Nara period. Works such as the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Kojiki]]}} and the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Nihon Shoki]]}} were political, used to record and therefore justify and establish the supremacy of the rule of the emperors within [[Japan]].<ref name="KatoSanderson2013One">{{cite book|author1=Shuichi Kato|author2=Don Sanderson|title=A History of Japanese Literature: From the Manyoshu to Modern Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JwGOYBfNdrUC&pg=PA12|date=15 April 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-61368-5|pages=12–13|access-date=9 December 2018|archive-date=8 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108190219/https://books.google.com/books?id=JwGOYBfNdrUC&pg=PA12|url-status=live}}</ref>

With the spread of written language, the writing of [[Japanese poetry]], known in Japanese as ''[[Waka (poetry)|waka]]'', began. The largest and longest-surviving collection of Japanese poetry, the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Man'yōshū]]}}, was compiled from poems mostly composed between 600 and 759 CE.<ref name="KatoSanderson2013Two">{{cite book|author1=Shuichi Kato|author2=Don Sanderson|title=A History of Japanese Literature: From the Manyoshu to Modern Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JwGOYBfNdrUC&pg=PA24|date=15 April 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-61368-5|page=24|access-date=9 December 2018|archive-date=8 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108190223/https://books.google.com/books?id=JwGOYBfNdrUC&pg=PA24|url-status=live}}</ref> This, and other Nara texts, used Chinese characters to express the sounds of [[Japanese language|Japanese]], known as ''[[man'yōgana]]''.<ref name="Frellesvig2010">{{cite book|author=Bjarke Frellesvig|title=A History of the Japanese Language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v1FcAgiAC9IC&pg=PA14|date=29 July 2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-48880-8|pages=14–15|access-date=9 December 2018|archive-date=5 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805182643/https://books.google.com/books?id=v1FcAgiAC9IC&pg=PA14|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Economic, livelihood, and administrative developments==
[[File:Gokishichido.svg|thumb|Gokishichidō system showing ancient regions and provinces during the Nara period after the introduction of the Yōrō Code (720)
{|  style="„border: 1px solid #F9F9F9; background: #F9F9F9”"
|align=center style="BACKGROUND: #FFC109; width: 25%;"| [[Kinai]]
|align=center style="BACKGROUND: #FF9D9D; width: 25%;"| [[Tōkaidō (region)|Tōkaidō]]
|align=center style="BACKGROUND: #FFDDBB; width: 25%;"| [[Tōsandō]]
|align=center style="BACKGROUND: #EAEAEA; width: 25%;"| [[Hokurikudō]]
|-
|align=center style="BACKGROUND: #DFDFFF; width: 25%;"| [[San'indō|San’indō]]
|align=center style="BACKGROUND: #F5FD95; width: 25%;"| [[San'yōdō|San’yōdō]]
|align=center style="BACKGROUND: #DCE0C0; width: 25%;"| [[Nankaidō]]
|align=center style="BACKGROUND: #F0E1E1; width: 25%;"| [[Saikaidō]]
|}]]
[[File:Daigoku-den at Heijō Palace under repair 2010.jpg|thumb|left|The primary building, i.e. the Daigoku-den at the [[Heijō Palace]] (In the center of the photograph: this is a modern version built for the 1300th anniversary of Nara becoming Japan's capital).
[[Tōdai-ji]]'s [[Daibutsuden]] and Wakakusayama can be seen in the rear (January, 2010).]]

Before the [[Taihō Code]] was established, the capital was customarily moved after the death of an emperor because of the ancient belief that a place of death was polluted. Reforms and bureaucratization of government led to the establishment of a permanent imperial capital at [[Heijō-kyō]], or [[Nara, Nara|Nara]], in AD 710.
The capital was moved shortly (for reasons described later in this section) to [[Kuni-kyō]] (present-day [[Kizugawa, Kyoto|Kizugawa]]) in 740–744, to [[Naniwa-kyō]] (present-day [[Osaka]]) in 744–745, to Shigarakinomiya (紫香楽宮, present-day [[Shigaraki]]) in 745, and moved back to Nara in 745. Nara was Japan's first truly urban center. It soon had a population of 200,000 (representing nearly 7% of the country's population) and some 10,000 people worked in government jobs.

Economic and administrative activity increased during the Nara period. Roads linked Nara to provincial capitals, and taxes were collected more efficiently and routinely. Coins were minted, if not widely used. Outside the Nara area, there was little commercial activity, and in the provinces the old [[Prince Shotoku|Shōtoku]] land reform systems declined. By the mid-eighth century, ''[[shōen]]'' (landed estates), one of the most important economic institutions in prehistoric Japan, began to rise as a result of the search for a more manageable form of landholding. Local administration gradually became more self-sufficient, while the breakdown of the old land distribution system and the rise of taxes led to the loss or abandonment of land by many people who became the "wave people" (''[[wiktionary:浮浪者|furōsha]]''). Some of these formerly "public people" were privately employed by large landholders, and "public lands" increasingly reverted to the ''shōen''.

Factional fighting at the imperial court continued throughout the Nara period. Imperial family members, leading court families, such as the [[Fujiwara clan|Fujiwara]], and Buddhist priests all contended for influence. Earlier during this period, [[Nagaya|Prince Nagaya]] seized power at the court after the death of [[Fujiwara no Fuhito]]. Fuhito was succeeded by four sons, [[Fujiwara no Muchimaro|Muchimaro]], [[Fujiwara no Umakai|Umakai]], [[Fujiwara no Fusasaki|Fusasaki]], and Maro. They put Emperor Shōmu, the prince by Fuhito's daughter, on the throne. In 729, they arrested Nagaya and regained control. As a [[735–737 Japanese smallpox epidemic|major outbreak of smallpox]] spread from Kyūshū in 735, all four brothers died two years later, resulting in temporary reduction in the Fujiwara dominance. In 740, a member of the Fujiwara clan, Hirotsugu, launched a rebellion from his base in Fukuoka, Kyushu. Although the rebellion was defeated, there is no doubt that the emperor was shocked and frightened by these events, and he moved the palace three times in only five years from 740, until he eventually returned to Nara.

In the late Nara period, financial burdens on the state increased, and the court began dismissing nonessential officials. In 792 universal conscription was abandoned, and district heads were allowed to establish private militia forces for local police work. Decentralization of authority became the rule despite the reforms of the Nara period. Eventually, to return control to imperial hands, the capital was moved in 784 to [[Nagaoka-kyō]] and in 794 to [[Heian-kyō]] (literally Capital of Peace and Tranquility), about twenty-six kilometers north of Nara. By the late eleventh century, the city was popularly called [[Kyoto]] (capital city), the name it has had ever since.

==Cultural developments and the establishment of Buddhism==
[[File:Shoso-in.jpg|thumb|[[Shōsōin]]]]
[[File:Yakushiji-1999-1.JPG|thumb|upright|The East Pagoda of [[Yakushi-ji]] temple was built in 730, during the Nara period]]
[[File:Seated Yakushi Nyorai (Bhaisajyaguru) Nara Period, 8th century.tiff|thumb|upright|Seated Bhaisajyaguru]]
Some of Japan's literary monuments were written during the Nara period, including the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Kojiki]]}} and {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Nihon Shoki]]}}, the first national histories, compiled in 712 and 720 respectively; the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Man'yōshū]]}}, an anthology of poems; and the ''[[Kaifūsō]]'', an anthology written in ''[[kanji]]'' by Japanese emperors and princes.

Another major cultural development of the era was the permanent establishment of [[Buddhism]]. Buddhism was introduced by [[Baekje]] in the sixth century but had a mixed reception until the Nara period, when it was heartily embraced by [[Emperor Shōmu]]. Shōmu and his Fujiwara consort were fervent Buddhists and actively promoted the spread of Buddhism, making it the "guardian of the state" and a way of strengthening Japanese institutions.

During Shōmu's reign, the [[Tōdai-ji]] (literally Eastern Great Temple) was built. Within it was placed the Great Buddha [[Daibutsu]]: a 16-metre-high, gilt-bronze statue. This Buddha was identified with the Sun Goddess, and a gradual syncretism of Buddhism and Shinto ensued. Shōmu declared himself the "Servant of the [[Three Jewels|Three Treasures]]" of Buddhism: the Buddha, the law or teachings of Buddhism, and the Buddhist community.

The central government established temples called [[Provincial temple|''kokubunji'']] in the [[Provinces of Japan|provinces]]. The Tōdai-ji was the kokubunji of [[Yamato Province]] (present-day [[Nara Prefecture]]).

Although these efforts stopped short of making Buddhism the state religion, Nara Buddhism heightened the status of the imperial family. Buddhist influence at court increased under the two reigns of Shōmu's daughter. As [[Empress Kōken]] (r. 749–758) she brought many Buddhist priests into court. Kōken abdicated in 758 on the advice of her cousin, [[Fujiwara no Nakamaro]]. When the retired empress came to favor a Buddhist faith healer named [[Dōkyō]], [[Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion|Nakamaro rose up in arms in 764]] but was quickly crushed. Kōken charged the ruling emperor with colluding with Nakamaro and had him deposed. Kōken reascended the throne as Empress Shōtoku (r. 764–770).

The empress commissioned the printing of 1 million prayer charms — the [[Hyakumantō Darani]] — many examples of which survive. The small scrolls, dating from 770, are among the earliest printed works in the world. Shōtoku had the charms printed to placate the Buddhist clergy. She may even have wanted to make Dōkyō emperor, but she died before she could act. Her actions shocked Nara society and led to the exclusion of women from imperial succession and the removal of Buddhist priests from positions of political authority.

Many of the Japanese artworks and imported treasures from other countries during the era of Emperors Shōmu and Shōtoku are archived in [[Shōsō-in]] of Tōdai-ji temple. They are called "Shōsōin treasures" and illustrate the cosmopolitan culture known as [[Tenpyō|Tempyō culture]]. Imported treasures show the cultural influences of [[Silk Road]] areas, including China, Korea, India, and the Islamic empire. Shosoin stores more than 10,000 paper documents, the so-called {{Nihongo|Shōsōin documents|正倉院文書|}}. These are records written in the reverse side of the sutra or in the wrapping of imported items that survived as a result of reusing wasted official documents. Shōsōin documents contribute greatly to the historical research of Japanese political and social systems of the Nara period, and they even can be used to trace the development of the [[Japanese writing system]]s (such as [[katakana]]).

The first authentically Japanese gardens were built in the city of Nara at the end of the eighth century. Shorelines and stone settings were naturalistic, different from the heavier, earlier continental mode of constructing pond edges. Two such gardens have been found at excavations; both were used for poetry-writing festivities.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ja.scribd.com/doc/274049284/Two-Early-Japanese-Gardens-by-Wybe-Kuitert#scribd |title=See Wybe Kuitert, Two Early Japanese Gardens 1991 |access-date=2015-11-26 |archive-date=2015-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123191400/https://ja.scribd.com/doc/274049284/Two-Early-Japanese-Gardens-by-Wybe-Kuitert#scribd |url-status=live }}</ref>

==International relations==
The Nara court aggressively imported knowledge about the [[China|Chinese]] civilization of its day (the [[Tang dynasty]])<ref>{{cite book|last=Lockard|first=Craig A.|title=Societies Networks And Transitions: Volume B From 600 To 1750|year=2009|publisher=Wadsworth|isbn=978-1-4390-8540-0|pages=290–291}}</ref> by sending diplomatic envoys known as [[Imperial Japanese embassies to China|kentōshi]] to the [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] court every twenty years. Many Japanese students, both lay and Buddhist priests, studied in [[Chang'an]] and [[Luoyang]]. One student named [[Abe no Nakamaro]] passed the [[Imperial examination|Chinese civil examination]] to be appointed to governmental posts in China. He served as governor-general in [[Annam (Chinese province)|Annam]] (Chinese [[Vietnam]]) from 761 through 767. Many students who returned from China, such as [[Kibi no Makibi]], were promoted to high government posts.

[[Tang dynasty|Tang]] China never sent official envoys to Japan, for Japanese kings, or "emperors" as they styled themselves, did not seek investiture from the Chinese emperor. A local Chinese government in the Lower Yangzi Valley sent a mission to Japan to return Japanese envoys who entered China through [[Balhae]]. The Chinese local mission could not return home due to the [[An Lushan Rebellion]] and remained in Japan.

The [[Hayato people]] (隼人) in southern [[Kyushu]] frequently resisted rule by the [[Imperial House of Japan|imperial dynasty]] during the Nara period.<ref>[[William George Aston]] says this in his note, see ''Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697'', translated from the original Chinese and Japanese by [[William George Aston]]. Book II, note 1, page 100. Tuttle Publishing. Tra edition (July 2005). First edition published 1972. {{ISBN|978-0-8048-3674-6}}</ref> They are believed to be of [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] origin and had a unique culture that was different from the Japanese people.<ref>Kakubayashi, Fumio. 1998. 隼人 : オーストロネシア系の古代日本部族' [http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110000577490/en/ ''Hayato : An Austronesian speaking tribe in southern Japan''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140526015630/http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110000577490/en/ |date=2014-05-26 }}'. ''The bulletin of the Institute for Japanese Culture, Kyoto Sangyo University'', 3, pp.15-31 {{ISSN|1341-7207}}.</ref><ref>The Hayato dance appears repeatedly in the Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, and Shoku Nihongi, performed on the occasion of paying tribute to the court and for the benefit of foreign visitors.</ref> They were eventually subjugated by the [[Ritsuryō]].

Relations with the [[Korea]]n kingdom of [[Silla]] were initially peaceful, with regular diplomatic exchanges. The rise of [[Balhae]] north of Silla destabilized Japan-Silla relations. [[Balhae]] sent its first mission in 728 to Nara, which welcomed them as the successor state to [[Goguryeo]], with which Japan had been allied until Silla unified the [[Three Kingdoms of Korea]].

==Events==
*710: Japan's capital is moved from [[Fujiwara-kyō]] to [[Heijō-kyō]], modeled after [[China]]'s capital [[Chang'an]].
*712: The collection of tales called the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Kojiki]]}} is published.
*717: The [[Hōshi Ryokan]] is founded, and it survives to become Japan's (and the world's) second oldest known hotel in 2012. (The oldest was founded in 705.)
*720: The collection of tales called the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Nihon Shoki]]}} is published.
*735–737: A [[735–737 Japanese smallpox epidemic|devastating smallpox epidemic]] spread from Kyushu to eastern Honshu and Nara, killing an estimated one-third of the Japanese population in these areas.<ref name=Suzuki>{{Cite journal | last = Suzuki | first = Akihito |date=July 2011 | title = Smallpox and the Epidemiological Heritage of Modern Japan: Towards a Total History | journal = [[Medical History (journal)|Medical History]] | volume = 55 | issue = 3 | pages = 313–318 | pmc = 3143877 | pmid = 21792253 | doi = 10.1017/S0025727300005329 }}</ref><ref name=farris>{{Cite book| last = Farris | first =William Wayne | title = The Historical Demography of Japan to 1700 (Routledge Handbook of Premodern Japanese History)  | publisher = Routledge | year = 2017 | location = Abingdon, United Kingdom | isbn = 978-0415707022  | pages = 252–253}}</ref>  The epidemic is said to have led to the construction of several prominent Buddhist structures during this time period as a form of appeasement.<ref name=Kohn>{{Cite book| last = Kohn | first =George C. | title = Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present  | publisher = Checkmark Books | year = 2002 | location = Princeton, New Jersey  | isbn = 978-0816048939  | page = 213}}</ref><ref name=Jannetta>{{Cite book| last = Jannetta | first =Ann Bowman | title = Epidemics and Mortality in Early Modern Japan  | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 2014 | location = New York, New York  | isbn = 978-0816048939  | pages = 65=67}}</ref>
*743: [[Emperor Shōmu]] issues a rescript to build the ''Daibutsu'' (Great Buddha), later to be completed and placed in [[Tōdai-ji]], [[Nara, Nara|Nara]].
*752: The Great Buddha ([[Daibutsu]]) at Tōdai-ji is completed.
*759: The poetic anthology {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Man'yōshū]]}} is published.
*784: The emperor moves the capital to [[Nagaokakyō|Nagaoka]].
*788: The Buddhist monk [[Saichō]] founds the monastery of [[Mount Hiei|Mt Hiei]], near [[Kyoto]], which becomes a vast ensemble of Buddhist temples.

==See also==
*[[Fujiwara no Hirotsugu rebellion]]
*[[Takahashi Ujibumi]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

===English===
*{{cite book |last1=Brown, Delmer M.|year=1993|title=Cambridge History of Japan: Ancient Japan|author1-link= Delmer Brown}}
*{{cite book |last1=Farris|first1=William|year=1993|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu|title=Japan's Medieval Population: Famine, Fertility, and Warfare in a Transformative Age}}
*{{cite book |last1=Ooms, Herman |year=2009|title=Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: The Tenmu Dynasty|pages=650–800|author1-link= Herman Ooms}}
*{{cite book |last1=Sansom, George Bailey|first1=G. B.|year=1978|title=Cambridge History of Japan: Ancient Japan|author1-link=George Sansom}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Kornicki, Peter F.|year=2012|title=The Hyakumantō darani and the origins of printing in eighth-century Japan|journal= International Journal of Asian Studies|volume= 9|pages=9:43–70|doi= 10.1017/S1479591411000180|s2cid=146242695|author1-link= Peter Kornicki}}
*{{cite journal |last1= Bender |first1= Ross |editor1-link= Karl Friday |editor1-first= Karl |editor1-last= Friday |year= 2012 |title= Emperor, Aristocracy, and the Ritsuryō State: Court Politics in Nara |journal= Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850 |publisher= Westview Press |url= https://www.academia.edu/1437868 |access-date= October 11, 2012 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

===Other===
* {{cite book
  | last = Kojima
  | first = Noriyuki
  | title = Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshū: Nihon Shoki (vol. 1)
  | publisher = Shōgakukan
  | year = 1994
  | isbn = 978-4-09-658002-8
 }}
*{{country study|country=Japan|abbr=jp}}

{{sequence
| prev = [[Asuka period]] 
| list = [[History of Japan]]
| next = [[Heian period]]
}}
{{Japan topics}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nara Period}}
[[Category:Nara period| ]]
[[Category:Classical Japan]]
[[Category:8th century in Japan]]
[[Category:Japanese eras]]
[[Category:710 establishments]]
[[Category:794 disestablishments]]