Heian Palace

The Heian Palace refers to the original imperial palace of Heiankyō (present-day Kyoto), the capital of Japan from 794 to 1868. The Palace, which served as the imperial residence and the administrative centre of Japan for most of the Heian Period (from 794 to 1185), has been completely destroyed by fires, wars and other disasters; the Palace site has been built over and almost no trace of it remains to be found in modern Kyoto.

Location

The Palace was located at the northern centre of the rectangular city, following the Chinese model adopted already for the two earlier capitals Heijōkyō (in present-day Nara) and Nagaokakyō. The south-eastern corner of the Greater Palace was located in the middle of the present-day Nijō Castle. The main entrance to the palace was the Suzakumon gate, which formed the northern terminus of the great Suzaku Avenue that ran through the centre of the city from the Rashomōn gate. The palace was thus facing south and preciding over the excatly symmetrical plan of Heiankyō.

The Greater Palace

The Greater Palace (大内裏, daidairi)) was a walled rectangular area extending approximately 1.5 km from north to south between the first and second major east-west avenues (Ichijō (一条, Ichijō) and Nijō (二条, Nijō) and 1 km from west to east between the Nishi Ōmiya (西大宮, Nishi Ōmiya) and Ōmiya (大宮, Ōmiya)north-south avenues. The three main strctures within the Greater Palace were the 'Official Compound' Chōdō-in (朝堂院, chōdōin), the 'Reception Compound' Buraku-in (豊楽院, burakuin) and the Inner Palace (内裏, dairi).

The Chōdō-in was a rectangular walled enclosure situated directly to the north of the Suzakumon gate in the centre of the southern wall of the Greater Palace. It was based on Chinese models and followed Chinese architectural styles, and archaeological evidence from earlier capitals show that this building complex was present in earlier palaces and had a remarkably stable design from the 7th century onwards. The main building within the Chōdō-in was the Daigakuden (大極殿, daigakuden) or the Great Audience Hall, facing south at the northern end of the compound. This was a large Chinese-style building with white walls, vermilion pillars and green tiled roofs, intended to host the most important state ceremonies and functions. The southern part of Chōdō-in was occupied by the Twelwe Halls of the government ministries. The Heian Jingū shrine in Kyoto includes an apparently faithful reconstruction of Daigakuden in somewhat reduced scale.

The Buraku-in was another large rectangular Chinese-style compound, situated to the west of the Chōdō-in. It was built for official celebrations and banquets and used also for other types of entertainment and contests.

Apart from the Inner Palace, the remaining area of the Greater Palace was occupied by officesm workshops, storage buildings and open space.

The Inner Palace

The Inner Palace or Dairi was located to the north-east of Chōdō-in, somewhat to the east of the central north-south axis of the Greater Palace. It housed the emperor's quarters, the pavilions of the imperial consorts and ladies-in-waiting, the Shishinden (紫宸殿, shishinden) or 'Throne Hall' as well as shintō shrines linked to the religious functions of the emperor.

In contrast to the solemn official Chinese-style architecture of the Chōdō-in and the Buraku-in, the Dairi was built in more intimate traditional Japanes architectural style -- if still on a grand scale. The buildings represented a particular variant of the Shinden style architecture used in the aristocratic villas and houses of the period.

The largest building of the Dairi was the Shishinden, which was used for official functions and ceremonies that were not held at the Daigakuden of the Chōdō-in complex. The Shishinden was a rectangular building opening to the south to a rectangular courtyard. To the north of the Shishined stood two smaller halls, one of which was originally intended as the emperor's living quarters. However, some time into the Heian period, the emperors tended to reside in the smaller Seiryōden (清涼殿, seiryōden), an east-facing building located immediately to the north-west from Shishinden. The buildings of the imperial consorts were located to the north of the buildings named above.

The present-day Kyoto Imperial Palace, located in what was the north-eastern corner of Heiankyō, reproduces much of the Heian-period Dairi, in particular the Shishinden and the Seiryōden.

History

The Palace was the first and most important construction to be erected at the new capital of Heiankyō, where the court moved in 794 following Emperor Kanmu's order in 791 that the capital be moved to the site of today's Kyoto. The The Palace was not completely ready by the time of the move, however -- the Daigakuden was completed only in 795, and the government office in charge of its construction was disbanded only in 805.

The grand Chinese-style compounds of Chōdō-in and Buraku-in started to fall into disuse quite early on, in parallel with the progressive abandonment of the elaborate Chinese-inspired government processes and bureaucracy, which were gradually either abandoned or reduced to empty forms. The centre of gravity of the Palace complex moved into the Inner Palace or Dairi, and the Shishined and later even the Seiryōden overtook the role of the Daigakuden as the places where official government business was conducted. At the same time the Greated Palace became began to be guarded less and less, until safety at night time on the palace grounds outside of the Dairi was not guaranteed.

Fires were a constant problem with the palace compound constructed almost entirely of wood. The Daigakuden was reconstructed after fires in 876, 1068 and in 1156 despite the limited use it had. However, after the major fire of 1177 which destroyed much of the Greated Palace, the Daigakuden was never rebuilt again.

Also the Dairi was repeatedly destroyed by fires, and the emperors had to stay frequently at their secondary palaces within the city. Often these secondary palaces were provided to the emperor by the powerful Fujiwara family, which especially in the latter part of the Heian period exercised de facto control of politics through providing the consorts to successive emperors.

After the great fire of 1177, the original Palace complex was abandoned and the emperors resided in smaller palaces within the city and villas outside of it. In 1334 Emperor Go-Daigo issued an edict to the effect of rebuilding the Greater Palace, but no resources were found to support this and project came to nothing.

Sources and Further Reading

• Hall, John W. (1974), "Kyoto as Historical Background", in Hall, John W.; Mass, Jeffrey (eds.), Medieval Japan -- Essays in Institutional History, Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-1511-4

• McCullough, William H. (1999), "The capital and its society", in Shively, Donald H.; McCullough, William H. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Japan: Heian Japan, vol. 2, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, ISBN [[Special:BookSources/0-521-22353-9}|0-521-22353-9}]] {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)