Nara period

The Nara period was an era of Japanese history during which the imperial court was based in Heijo-kyo, the city now known as Nara. It began with the move of the capital there and saw the consolidation of a centralised state modelled on Tang China, with written law codes, a census and a system of taxation. Buddhism flourished with state support, and the giant bronze Buddha of Todai-ji was cast under Emperor Shomu. The first surviving Japanese books, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, as well as the poetry anthology Manyoshu, date from these years. The court moved to Nagaoka and then to Heian-kyo, now Kyoto, in the following decades, ending the period.

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