Heian-Palast
The Heian Palace refers to the original imperial palace of Heiankyō (thepresent-day Kyoto), the capital of Japan from 794 to 1868. The vast 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 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 Heiankyō, 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 (Daidairi)
The Vorlage:Nihongo) was a walled rectangular area extending approximately 1.4 km from north to south between the first and second major east-west avenues (Vorlage:Nihongo and Vorlage:Nihongo and 1.2 km from west to east between the Vorlage:Nihongo and Vorlage:Nihongonorth-south avenues [1]. The three main structures within the Greater Palace were the 'Official Compound' Vorlage:Nihongo, the 'Reception Compound' Vorlage:Nihongo and the Vorlage:Nihongo.
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 shows that this building complex was present in earlier palaces and had a remarkably stable design from the 7th century onwards[2]. The main building within the Chōdō-in was Vorlage:Nihongo or the Great Audience Hall, facing south at the northern end of the compound. This was a large (approximately 52 m east to west and 20 m north to south[1]) Chinese-style building with white walls, vermilion pillars and green tiled roofs, intended to host the most important state ceremonies and functions. It was here that the emperor was supposed preside over the conduct of major state affairs by the ministers, a practice which however ceased to be followed already by 810[1]. 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 Daigokuden in somewhat reduced scale.
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 such as archery contest[1]. As the Chōdō-in, also the Buraku-in had a hall at the central northern end of the enclosure overseeing the court. This hall, Vorlage:Nihongo, was used by the emperor and courtiers presiding over activities in the Buraku-in.
Apart from the Inner Palace, the remaining area of the Greater Palace was occupied by ministries, lesser offices, workshops, storage buildings and the large open space of the 'Banqueting Pine Grove' or Vorlage:Nihongo to the east of the Dairi. The buildings of the Council of State or Vorlage:Nihongo were situated in a walled enclosure immediately to the east of Chōdō-in, laid out in the typical symmetrical plan of buildings opening to a courtyard in the south. The Palace also housed Vorlage:Nihongo, apart from Tōji and Saiji, the only Buddhist establishment within the capital[1]. Its placement right next to the Inner Palace shows the influence of the Shingon sect during the early Heian Period.
The Inner Palace (Dairi)
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 'Throne Hall', the emperor's quarters and the pavilions of the imperial consorts and ladies-in-waiting. The Dairi was enclosed within two sets of walls: the outer walls enclosed in addition to the Dairi itself some household offices, storage areas and Vorlage:Nihongo, a walled area of shintō buildings associated with the emperor's religious functions and situated to the west of the Dairi itself, at the geographic centre of the Greater Palace. The principal gate of the larger enclosure was the Vorlage:Nihongo located in the southern wall along the median north-south axis of the Dairi.
The Dairi proper, the residential compound of the emperor, was enclosed within another set of walls to the east of Chūwain. It measured approximately 215 m north to south and 170 m east to west[1]. The main gate was the Vorlage:Nihongo at the centre of the southern wall of the Dairi enclosure, immediately to the north of Kenreimon. In contrast to the solemn official Chinese-style architecture of Chōdō-in and Buraku-in, the Dairi was built in more intimate Japanes architectural style — if still on a grand scale. The Inner Palace represented a variant of the Shinden style architecture used in the aristocratic villas and houses of the period. The buildings, with unpainted surfaces and gabled and shingled cypress bark roofs, were raced on elevated wooden platforms and connected to each other with covered and uncovered slightly elevated passages. Between the buildings and passages were gravel yards and small gardens.
The largest building of the Dairi was the Throne Hall or Vorlage:Nihongo, a building reserved for official functions. It was a rectangular hall measuring approximately 30 m east to west and 25 m north to south[1], and situated along the median north-south axis of the Dairi, overseeing a rectangular courtyard and facing the Shōmeimon gate. An orange tree and a cherry tree stood symmetrically on both sides of the front staircase of the building. The courtyard was flanked on both sides by smaller halls connected to the Shishinden, creating the same configuration of buildings (influenced by Chinese examples) that was found in the aristocratic Shinden style villas of the period.
Shishinden was used for official functions and ceremonies that were not held at Daigakuden of the Chōdō-in complex. It took over much of the intended use of the larger and more formal building from an early date, as the daily business of government ceased to be conducted in the presence of the emperor in Daigokuden already at the beginning of the ninth century[1]. Connected to this diminishing reliance on the official government procedures described in the Ritsuryō code was the establishment of a personal secretariat to the emperor, the Chamberlain's Office or Vorlage:Nihongo. This office, which increasingly took over the role of coordinating the work of government organs, was set up in Vorlage:Nihongo, the hall to the south-west of Shishinden.
To the north of the Shishinden stood Vorlage:Nihongo, a similarly constructed hall of somewhat smaller size that was intended to function as the emperor's living quarters. However, starting already in the ninth century, the emperors often chose to reside in other buildings of the Dairi. A third still smaller hall, Vorlage:Nihongo was located next to the north along the main axis of the Dairi. After the Dairi was rebuilt following a fire in 960, another building became the regular residence of the emperors: the smaller Vorlage:Nihongo[1], an east-facing building located immediately to the north-west from Shishinden. Seiryōden gradually became more and more used for meetings as well, with emperors spending much of their time in this part of the Palace.
The empress as well as the official and unofficial inperial consorts were also housed in the Dairi, occupying buildings in the northern part of the enclosure. The most prestigious buildings, housing the empress and the official consorts, were the ones with proper location with regard to the symmetry of the Dairi (Vorlage:Nihongo, Vorlage:Nihongo and Vorlage:Nihongo) as well as the ones closest to the imperial residence in Seiryōden (Vorlage:Nihongo and Vorlage:Nihongo)[3]. The lesser consorts and ladies-in-waiting occupied other buildings in the northern half of the Dairi.
The Dairi also housed in the Vorlage:Nihongo one of the Imperial Regalia of Japan, the sacred mirror[3].
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 Daigokuden was completed only in 795, and the government office in charge of its construction was disbanded only in 805[2].
The grand Chinese-style compounds of Chōdō-in and Buraku-in started to fall into disuse quite early on, in parallel with the decline of the elaborate ritsuryō Chinese-inspired ritsuryō 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 Shishinden and later even the Seiryōden overtook the role of the Daigokuden as the places where official government business was conducted. At the same time the Greater Palace 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. Daigokuden 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, Daigokuden was never rebuilt again. Burakuin was destroyed by a fire in 1063 and was never rebuilt.[1]
Also the Dairi was repeatedly destroyed by fires from 960 on, but was rebuilt and used as the official imperial residence until the late 12th century[1]. While the Dairi was being rebuilt following fires, the emperors had to stay frequently at their secondary Vorlage:Nihongo 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. Thus the residences of the maternal grandparents of the emperors in the north-eastern part of the city started to take over the residential function of the Palace itself already before the end of the Heian period.The institution of the rule by retired emperors or the Vorlage:Nihongo from 1086 further added to the declining importance of the Palace as the retired emperors exercised power from their own residential palaces inside and outside of the city.
After a fire in 1177, the original Palace complex was abandoned and the emperors resided in smaller palaces (the former sato-dairi) within the city and villas outside of it. And in 1227 a fire finally destroyed what remained of the Dairi, and the old Greater Palace are went into complete disuse. 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.[2]