Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/157



HE restoration of the administrative power to the Emperor in the middle of the seventh century, which was marked by the great legislative measures already spoken of and by the re-modelling of the government on Chinese bureaucratic lines, prefaced a period generally known as the "Nara, or Heijo, epoch" (709–784), because the town of Nara, then chosen as the imperial capital, had the distinction of being the first city to hold that rank independently of changes of sovereign. Hitherto it had been the custom for the Emperor and the heir apparent to reside in different places, and of course there grew up about the palace of the prince material interests and moral associations opposed to a change of habitation. Hence on his accession to the throne, he usually transferred the capital of the empire from the place occupied by his predecessor to the site of his own palace. In addition to this source of frequent change, it happened occasionally that the residence of the Imperial Court, and therefore