One great thing about this World of Genji research project is that it’s getting me to read all sorts of books I wouldn’t normally pick up, such as this history of Kyoto city. The Tale of Genji is set during the height of the Heian period in Heian-Kyo (premodern Kyoto). Since the World of Shining Prince mentioned that nature and the environment of Genji was a “vital force” in the novel, I decided to find out more about Heian-Kyo.

Kyoto: An Urban History of Japan’s Premodern Capital starts off by taking a look at the ideal of Heian-kyo. But that’s just the plan. Chapter two looks at the actual city that was built and chapter three looks at how the suburbs of Kamigyo and Shimogyo were formed. Chapter four looks at the “medieval discourse on capital exclusivity that conveys an impulse to insulate Kyoto from the growing influence of temples and warriors”, mostly by using its boundaries, which in turn led to the concept of “Rakuchu” and “Rakugai”. Chapter five looks at the Ashikaga shogunate, which was established in 1336 and the first and only shogunate to make its headquarters in Kyoto. Chapter six looks at the changes in Kyoto during the warring states period (1467 – 1680s) and finally, Chapter seven looks at Kyoto’s post-war reconstruction under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. Since I’m most interested in the Heian period, which was from 749 to 1185, that was what I focused on. That said, since The Tale of Genji was written in the early 11th century and set in the past, I probably don’t need to read until the end of the Heian era. But any rate, I’ll be talking about what I learnt from the first four chapters for the rest of the review.

Heian-kyo was heavily inspired by China, and was in fact “the sixth Chinese-style city built in Japan in just over a century.” As such, “most scholars agree that the Japanese sought to mimic the majestic imperial cityscapes of Chang’an and Luoyang.” The city was planned in an urban grid style and divided into two halves (right and left), which were “considered discrete institutional units” with their own executive officers. What I found interesting was that even the size of the houses were decided in advance – while the city was planned in blocks called “machi” (120m or 40 jo in a side), only nobility of the third rank and higher were allowed to have one block. Noblemen of the fourth to fifth rank were given half a machi, those of the sixth rank and lower a quarter, and commoners were expected to live in something called a “henushi“, which is a 450m2 plot.

The government of that time was based on the ritsuryo codes, “which is a body of criminal (Ritsu) and administrative (ryo) codes adapted from Tang China in stages leading up to formal codification in the eighth century”. Because Heian-kyo was conceived as an “inert venue of Ritsuryo statecraft”, the architecture of the ruling elite was based on the ritual state shrines of Luoyang. This style, known as the shinden style, wasn’t really a great place to live in for medieval Japanese, but it was considered important for creating a ritualised form of statecraft based on the Ritsuryo codes. As such, everything “from clothing and gestures to architecture and interior decor (shitsurai) were meticulously prescribed”.

This is also why the Fujiwaras often built their palaces to resemble the imperial palace. Since they often married their daughters to the royal family and would end up being related to the emperor, they would often welcome the emperor’s “home” to the place where they were born. And because form and function were so closely tied, having their palaces built to resemble the Imperial Palace meant that the emperor could do his work there, thus allowing him to stay longer at the Fujiwaras.

Also, this left and right city thing (ukyo and sakyo) explains why there’s also a Minster of the Left and Minister of the Right, although the Minister of the Right is the deputy of the Minister of the Left. Something else to keep in mind while re-reading The Tale of Genji because these two ministers appeared very often.

Although the planners of Heian-kyo had a really nice goal in mind, that goal wasn’t realised. The planned city was never fully built, and an entry from a 959 literary memoir implies that by that time, the Western half of the city (ukyo) was derelict. In addition, the commoners didn’t really group together in their machi, but quite naturally grouped together with the people who lived on their street (in the opposite machi).

In addition, as the concept of ukyo and sakyo disappeared, the remaining city divided itself into Kamigyo (upper capital) and Shimogyo (lower capital). The elites gathered around Kamigyo, since the Yomei gate that they used to enter the city was there.

Another thing I learnt is that in the current tenet of real estate – location, location, location – was true back then. One reason why a former capital (Heijo) was abandoned was because Emperor Kanmu wanted to separate the state from the influence of Buddhism. And as a result, there were only two temples and shrines in Heian-kyo (Toji and Saiji), both of which were official state institutions. But because power is attractive, “the founding of Heian-kyo exerted a strong gravitational pull on religious institutions seeking to be close, geographically and politically, to the center of power”, leading them to set up shrines outside the city. That’s quite different from my impression of current day Kyoto, which is full of shrines and temples!

There is a lot of information in this book. I basically read it for the second time (well, the first four chapters at least) just to summarise what I learnt for this review. The style is pretty dry and academic, but it’s definitely something you’ll want to read if you’re really looking to understand the history of Kyoto and how space and architecture influenced the city.