The Imperial Court in
Kyoto was the nominal ruling
government of Japan from 794 AD until the
Meiji period (1868–1912), after which the court was moved from
Kyoto (formerly
Heian-kyō) to
Tokyo (formerly
Edo) and integrated into the
Meiji government.[1] Upon the court being moved to Kyoto from Nagaoka by
Emperor Kanmu (737–806),[2] the struggles for power regarding the throne that had characterized the
Nara period diminished.[1] Kyoto was selected as the location for the court because of its "proper" amount of rivers and mountains which were believed to be the most auspicious surroundings for the new capital.[1] The capital itself was built in imitation of
Chang'an, the Chinese capital of the
Tang dynasty, closely following the theories of
yin-yang.[1] The most prominent group of people within the court was the civil aristocracy (
kuge) which was the ruling class of society that exercised power on behalf of the emperor.[3]
Kyoto's identity as a political, economic, and cultural centre started to be challenged in the post-1185 era with the rise of the shogunate system which gradually seized governance from the emperor.[2]Minamoto no Yoritomo was the first to establish the post of the shōgun as hereditary, receiving the title in 1192.[4] After Yoritomo launched the shogunate, true political power was in the hand of the shōguns, who were mistaken several times for the
emperors of Japan by representatives of Western countries. The
Kamakura shogunate (or Kamakura bakufu) would go on to last for almost 150 years, from 1185 to 1333.[4]
Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982). [
Arai Hakuseki, 1712] Tokushi Yoron; "Lessons from History: the Tokushi yoron" translated by Joynce Ackroyd. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press.
ISBN0-7022-1485-X
(in Japanese) Asai T. (1985). Nyokan Tūkai. Tokyo:
Kōdansha.
Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. (1979). [
Jien, c. 1220], Gukanshō; "The Future and the Past: a translation and study of the 'Gukanshō', an interpretive history of Japan written in 1219" translated from the Japanese and edited by Delmer M. Brown & Ichirō Ishida. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
ISBN0-520-03460-0
Ozaki, Yukio. (2001). The Autobiography of Ozaki Yukio: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan. [Translated by Fujiko Hara]. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
ISBN0-691-05095-3 (cloth)
(in Japanese) Ozaki, Yukio. (1955). Ozak Gakudō Zenshū. Tokyo: Kōronsha.