The Heian Period
Learning Target:
I can identify why the Heian Period has been called the
“Golden Age of Japan”. HSS 7.5.5
Heian Period (794-1185 AD)
• The emperor of Japan moved his capital to the city of
Heian (now Kyoto) in 794 AD.
• Many royals then set up a court in Heian to be near the
emperor.
• In Heian, nobles lived lives of luxury that were much
different from the lives of the common people of Japan.\
• Miyabi: The Court Code: Decorum, Appearance, Restraint
Heian Japan
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794-1185
Capital at Heian: present-day Kyoto
Highly formalized court culture
Aristocratic monopoly of power
Literary and artistic flowering
Ended in civil wars and emergence of
samurai culture
Court Life in Heian
The focus of noble life during the Heian
Period was luxury. They wanted to find as
much beauty as possible.
Nobles spent much of their day creating art
or viewing artistic performances.
Golden Age of Literature
 Poetry - famous forms of Japanese poetry
include haiku and tanka.
 Literature - during this time many Japanese
novels were written by Japanese noble women.
(Japanese men wrote books in the Chinese
language.)
 The world’s first full length novel, The Tale of
Genji, was written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu.
 Most noble women kept journals about their lives
at court. The Pillow Book is and example of a
lady’s journal.
Murasaki Shikibu
From a series of the 36
Immortal Poets
Katsukawa Shunsho 18th c.
Thirty-six
Immortal
Poets
The Thirty-six Immortal
Poets (detail), Edo
period (1615-1868)
Ikeda Koson (1802–
1867)
Two-panel folding
screen; ink and color on
silk; 68 x 68 3/4 in.
(172.8 x 174.6 cm)
Property of Mary Griggs
Burke
Golden Age of Art
 Nobles loved to create art.
Watercolor paintings of landscapes and
illustrations of stories were very popular.
Paintings were used to decorate homes and
furniture. Painted fans were also popular.
Calligraphy (decorative writing) was also popular
with nobles. They spent many hours copying
poetry.
Architecture (building design) was an important art
form. Many shrines, palaces and temples were
designed during this time.
Otoko-e style
Performing Arts
 Japanese nobles considered performing
undignified, but they loved to watch jugglers,
musicians, acrobats and dramas.
 The first Japanese dramas were written for
puppets. This is called bunraku.
 Later dramas, called Noh plays, featured live
actors and focused on hero tales.
Kokinshu Poets
Fun'ya-no-Yasuhide
Ono no
Komachi
Lady
Ise
Otomo-noKuronushi
Ki no Tsurayuki
Ariwara no Narihir
Fashion
 Noble women placed a high value on fashion. If a
women appeared in society without following
strict rules of dress, she would be shamed and
ostracized.
 The nobles had wardrobes full of silk robes, and gold
jewelry. Both men and women wore kimonos.
 Women wore elaborate outfits such as long gowns
made of 12 layers of colored silk which were cleverly
cut and folded to show off many layers at once.
 Both men and women carried fancy, painted fans.
Heian Fashion
During the Nara and the previous Asuka periods, techniques for
dyeing silk were developed. Clothing consisted of many pieces
including upper and lower garments, jackets, a front skirt, and a
back skirt.
Appearance and Beauty
 The perfect face was round and white with a tiny mouth.
 Both men and women applied large amounts of white powder
to their faces.
 All women and many men blackened their teeth with an iron
substance.
 Women shaved their eyebrows and painted two small black
artificial eyebrows high on their foreheads.
 Women grew their hair as long as possible, with the hopes that
the hair would be longer than the person was tall.
 People were advised to sleep only at night so no one would see
them sleeping since they were believed to be uglier when lying
down.