HEIAN PERIOD

Heian period: translation

(794–1186)

The HEIAN period refers to the epoch in Japanese history extending from 794 to 1186, when the capital city was located in Heiankyō (modern-day Kyoto). This early medieval period began when the emperor moved the capital from NARA, and it ended after the Genpei War, when the victorious Minamoto clan transferred the capital to KAMAKURA. The Heian period is distinguished for its refined, artistic court culture. Although the emperor’s court served as the cultural center, the real political power lay with dominant clans, in particular the Fujiwaras. The aristocracy—making up less than 1 percent of Japan’s approximately 5 million inhabitants—was divided into 10 ranks, with rank determining a person’s job.We know about this aristocracy through the writings of its members, but little is known of the lower classes.

The aristocracy resided inshindenpalaces, typically one-story wooden structures consisting of wings joined by corridors, surrounded by gardens. Living arrangements were fluid. The principal wife, for instance, might live with her family and have her husband visit. The nobleman could have his own mansion and assign his wives to various wings. Aside from the official wife, the aristocrat may have secondary wives. Though aristocrats practiced polygamy (along with casual affairs), monogamy was the norm for the lower classes who lacked the funds and leisure time for multiple partners. Heian Japan looked back to the Chinese TANG DYNASTY of the 600s to 900s as a model,much in the same way that medieval Europe was inspired by the earlier Roman Empire. Fusing native Japanese characteristics with this borrowed Chinese culture,Heian aristocracy devoted itself to what Ivan Morris calls the “cult of beauty in art and nature” (194). Court ceremonies and religious rituals (eiga) ruled aristocratic life. The refined nobleman was expected to compose poetry and compete in literary contests, play musical instruments and sing, dance, paint (calligraphy was especially cultivated), and master etiquette forms for conducting love affairs and other social interactions.Such a code resembles thesprezzatura(“artful artlessness”) of Europe’s ruling class during the early modern period.

The prevailing sensibility wasaware, intense emotion stemming from the Buddhist realization of the ephemeral beauty of this world, and expressed in the arts through principles of elegant aesthetics (miyabi). Although Buddhist ideas were imported from China, they were modified by native Shinto thought. For instance the belief in spirits and demons was based in Shinto, but exorcists were frequently Buddhist clerics.

Given the focus upon aesthetics, it is not surprising that the Heian era is the Japanese golden age for the arts and produced the country’s greatest authors: MURASAKI SHIKIBU, author of Japan’s most treasured classic,The TALE OF GENJI(Genji Monogatari), classified as the world’s first novel and one of the finest; SEI SHōNAGON, whosePillow Book(Makura no Sōshi) is a complex piece of autobiographical writing that defies easy categorization and description; and IZUMI SHIKUBU, Heian Japan’s foremost poet.

The above-mentioned authors were all women living circa 1000, and their presence in the canon of Japanese literature from their time to the present is unusual for literary canons. In contrast, medieval women writers from Europe had to be “recovered” in recent decades. The reasons for this dominance by women writers are much discussed, but, in short, come from the fact that, as in medieval Europe, where men dominated the official language of Latin, so, too, in medieval Japan, men tended to write in the official language of Chinese. Subsequently, Heian women developed the script ofonna-de(“woman’s hand”) to write in the vernacular language of Japanese. Secluded behind screens from the prying eyes of men, women writers such as Murasaki Shikibu would entertain such royal patrons as Empress Shōshi with romance prose narratives interspersed with poetry (monogatari),wakapoetry reflecting the Shinto appreciation of nature, and autobiographical writings, such as diaries (nikki).

Once the Heian era ended, however, the number of women writers with their refined elegant style declined, as the emperor and the aristocracy in Heiankyō began to lose power to provincial military rulers and as more austere Confucian and Buddhist attitudes began to dominate during the Kamakura era.

■ Miner, Earl, Hiroko Odagiri, and Robert E. Morrell.The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985.

■ Morris, Ivan.The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan. New York: Knopf, 1969.

■ Stevenson, Barbara, and Cynthia Ho, eds.Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on Medieval European and Heian Japanese Women Writers. New Middle Ages Series, edited by Bonnie Wheeler. New York: Palgrave/St.Martin’s, 2000.