The Nara period

During the reign of the empress Gemmei (707–715) the site of the capital was moved to the northwestern sector of the Nara Basin. The new capital was called Heijō-kyō and is known today as Nara. Overcrowding, the relative isolation of the Fujiwara capital, and what would prove to be a constant nemesis to the Japanese state, an overly powerful Buddhist establishment, were some of the main factors contributing to the move.

The Nara period (710–784), also known as the Tempyō period, marks the apex of concentrated Japanese efforts to emulate Chinese cultural and political models. Official Japanese contact with Tang China had dropped off after the defeat of the Japanese in 663 by combined Tang and Silla forces. However, Japanese court perception of the governing effectiveness of the centralized Chinese state sparked renewal of relationships with the mainland at many levels. The new capital city was modeled after the Tang capital at Chang’an (near modern Xi’an), and complex legal codifications (ritsuryō) based on the Chinese system established an idealized order of social relationships and obligations. Thus, a hierarchical society was established, in symbolic and real terms, with all power proceeding from the emperor. The integration of religion into this scheme fixed a properly understood relationship between spiritual and earthly authority. Secular authority ultimately drew its power from this relationship. The ever more precise articulation of these notions further positioned Buddhism to receive massive governmental support.

The first several decades of the 8th century were marked by power struggles, political intrigue, attempted coups, and epidemics. This generally unsettled and contentious atmosphere caused the emperor Shōmu (724–749) to press determinedly for strengthening the spiritual corrective that he perceived to be offered by Buddhism. In 741 he established the kokubunji system, building a monastery and a nunnery in each province, all under a central authority at Nara. In 743 he initiated the planning for construction of that central authority—the Tōdai Temple—and of its central image, a massive bronze statue of the Birushana (Vairocana) Buddha, known as the Great Buddha (Daibutsu). Shōmu envisioned religion as a supportive and integrated power in the rule of the state, not as a private faith or as a parallel or contending force. His merging of church and state, however, later enabled the temples to acquire wealth and privilege and allowed Buddhist priests to interfere in secular affairs, eventually leading to a degeneration of the national administration.

The Chinese taxation system, which was first adopted in Japan during the Taika reforms and further promulgated by the ritsuryō system, was based on the principle of state ownership of land and a national appropriation of the rice crop. It was, from the beginning, an inappropriate fit for the realities of Japanese agriculture. By mid-century the growth of privately owned, tax-free estates had shrunk the tax base, and this, coupled with the extraordinary demands for expansion, temple building, and icon manufacture, placed great strain on the general population. After mid-century an important minister of state, Fujiwara Nakamaro (706–764), attempted reforms and more equitable taxation. Nakamaro, whose instincts were essentially Confucian, was in conflict with the firmly established Buddhist clergy led by the powerful monk Dōkyō (d. 772). As counselor to the empress Kōken (718–770), who later reigned also under the name of Empress Shōtoku, Dōkyō held extraordinary power and secular title but was finally thwarted in his attempt to be named emperor. The concluding decades of the century were characterized by attempts to regularize government expenditure and to control the power of the Buddhist clergy. In 784 the capital was transferred north to Nagaoka, just west of present-day Kyōto. This was a prelude to the establishment of the capital at Heian-kyō, now called Kyōto, in 794.

What was meant to have been perceived as the cultural expression of a powerful government intent on adapting the very finest elements of Tang international style was actually an extreme attempt by a comparatively weak government to conjure power through symbolic gesture. Nevertheless, the push to establish Japan as at least equal in splendour to Tang China in its celebrations of Buddhism and to mark Japan as the magnificent easternmost extension of the faith’s expansion in Asia allowed for a halcyon period for the creation of Buddhist art. Virtually all aspects of Tang culture were absorbed during this period. Indeed, because Buddhism was later suppressed in China and much of Tang Buddhist iconography destroyed, extant Japanese art of the Nara period serves as the single best reminder, once removed, of what the Buddhist glories of Tang China must have been.

The main monument to the Nara period is undoubtedly the huge Tōdai Temple complex with its colossal central image of the cast-bronze Great Buddha. The construction of the Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden) commenced in 745, and dedication ceremonies for the nearly 15-metre- (50-foot-) high seated figure were held in 752. Only fragments of the original are extant. Most of the present sculpture dates to a reconstruction in 1692, which nevertheless gives ample sense of the scale and ambitions of Emperor Shōmu.

Two important Nara temples predate the initiation of the Tōdai Temple project. Kōfuku and Hokkedō were both constructed in the Gekyō (“Outer Capital”) area to the east of the imperial palace (this “outer’’ area is now where most extant Nara period sites are located), and their assorted extant iconography bears witness to the revolution in sculptural rendering that is a distinguishing feature of 8th-century Japanese art.

Kōfuku, the titular temple of the powerful Fujiwara clan, originally was established as Yamashina Temple in the area of present-day Kyōto in the mid-7th century. It was relocated to Nara in 710 by clan leader Fujiwara Fuhito (659–720) and given the name Kōfuku. In scale and in assembled iconography, Kōfuku Temple reflected the de facto political control wielded by the Fujiwara. Kōfuku was conceived as a place of worship and of monastic learning and as a centre for providing social services (such as medical and charitable aid) to the general population. After Fuhito’s death an octagonal memorial hall was constructed, similar to the Hall of Dreams at Hōryū Temple. This distinctive architectural addition to the temple indicated a shift away from the use of a pagoda or stupa as a large reliquary or memorial structure.