The Heian Period started when the Japanese capital was moved to Heian-kyo, which is modern
day Kyoto.
It was a time of massive political change.
And culture.
Lots of culture.
No really, the rich couldn’t find useful things to do so they just painted and wrote
sh--t.
Just kidding, I love art.
But I’ve seen people talk about the Heian Period as if nothing else happened, people
just lounged around having poetry battles for 400 years.
No, the Heian was when the Japanese emperor lost his power and became a figurehead.
The emperor would not have any real authority again until the modern age.
The Hot Potato of Power in the government passed from the emperor, to the Fujiwara clan
for 200 years, and then to the retired emperor for another hundred years.
Oh, and then we had the military takeover.
Let’s get into it.
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In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved the capital from Nara to Nagaoka-kyo.
In 794, he found a better deal on real estate and moved it again to Heian-kyo, starting
what we now call the Heian Period.
794 to 1185.
We don’t know for sure why Kanmu decided to move out of Nara, but a popular suggestion
is that the ruling elites wanted to get away from Buddhist temples.
The Nara capital was right in the middle of Buddha-land.
You couldn’t walk around without hitting a major Buddhist temple.
When the ambitious monk Dokyo almost took the throne, it was clear to the court that
Buddhist leaders had too much influence.
The Imperial House’s power peaked in the Heian Period, then crashed as hard as a Tesla
doesn’t.
They reached peak emperor with Emperor Kanmu.
He’s often considered the most powerful Japanese emperor in terms of his authority.
Moving the capital twice is evidence of his huge political and economic resources.
Kanmu and his sons who also became emperors tried to vacuum up power for the throne, but
they failed.
If you’ve been watching the previous videos, you’d know that the Japanese court was home
to a constant struggle between the Imperial Family and the powerful clans.
In the Heian era, we saw government officials putting their clans before the state.
Despite two centuries of emperors telling people
“No really I should be the absolute ruler follow me,”
they just could not break the bonds that tied clan members together.
And the Fujiwara bonds were definitely strong.
Through strategic marriages and the Imperial House having some pushover emperors, the Fujiwara
clan took over control of the court.
It wasn’t technically a coup because they didn’t oust the Imperial Family.
The Fujiwara heads became regents, ruling on behalf of the emperor.
This went on for more than two centuries, until another power shift happened.
Emperor Go-Sanjo snatched the Hot Potato of Power back from the Fujiwara.
He was an interesting fellow, he abdicated the throne to go live in a monastery, but
then said “just kidding” and retained control through a shadow government called
insei, which is often translated as cloistered government.
It literally means monastery government or monastery rule.
His successors thought this was a neat idea and they continued to do it, giving us about
a century of rule by retired emperors.
Although they finally shut down the Fujiwara tractor beam that enveloped the court, the
actual emperor remained a figurehead.
The position of emperor had permanently lost all real power, at least in premodern Japan.
Alright let’s talk about art.
It was a time of cultural blossoming.
The Japanese court exploded into words and paint.
China was a source of high culture and if you wanted to be a government official, you
had better learn to read Chinese and understand Chinese culture, Confucianism, and Buddhism.
Confucian and Buddhist texts repeated over and over again not only how to govern justly,
but also how to be a moral person, according to the Chinese.
A bunch of classics came out of the Heian era,
such as the Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book,
much to the chagrin of Humanities students everywhere.
The Japanese written scripts of hiragana and katakana were also created in this era, and
we saw a movement away from the Chinese written language and towards the new Japanese scripts,
mostly led by women.
Buddhist temples commissioned a bunch of Buddha-y paintings and sculptures, but art started
expanding into the non-Buddha-y realm as well, as artists began to realize that they were
able to paint regular-sized ears.
This cultural flowering also started to seep outside the Heian court and into the life
of commoners, who were known to read or at least listen to court literature.
There were traveling bards who spread stories and music among the common folk,
and STDs.
However, all of this cultural prosperity did not save the Heian government.
Central authority spiraled downwards in the toilet bowl of history.
A major reason for this was the proliferation of shoen.
Shoen were private hereditary lands that did not belong to the central government.
Shoen did not pay federal taxes, had their own laws, and policed themselves.
In fact, if a criminal fled into a shoen, the Imperial government had to respectfully
request the criminal be handed over.
Even before the Heian Period, the court began suicidally granting shoen to temples and to
government officials as payment for their services.
Over time, to the surprise of no one whatsoever, this system grew so much that it became a
danger to imperial economic and political power.
The court was giving away its tax revenue and manpower.
And for its next shitty trick, the court made another genius decision, it disbanded its
military.
Which brings us to the rise of the warrior class.
That’s right, the samurai are coming.
Before, the court conscripted peasants and low-ranked nobles to serve in the imperial
military.
But they had problems.
People were dodging service, peasants couldn’t tell their ass from a spear, plus there wasn’t
much of a foreign threat.
So they decided this defense thing was too much trouble and did away with the whole business.
Instead, emperors authorized local strongmen to create private armies and operate on the
state’s behalf.
Emperors also authorized local strongmen to live in their homes and date their wives.
There were a lot of lesser clans and nobles who would have never amounted to much in the
government, but they wanted to enter the halls of power, to mingle with the adults.
A new career path had opened up for these ambitious folks.
Militias and military clans started popping up, including the Taira and Minamoto clans.
The large number of shoen contributed to their success due to the increased need for private
armies.
The Heian Period started with creation, the creation of a new capital.
It ended with destruction.
A nationwide war erupted between the Taira and Minamoto clans.
It was called the Genpei War, and it ushered in 700 years of military rule.
So yeah, this is just a summary of the Heian Period, we’ll go into more detail in later
videos.
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Alright much love guys, now get out there and spread the knowledge!