unt of the
transfer of the capital from Nara to Kyoto. Thus, although Kwammu's
warnings and exhortations were earnest, and his dismissals and
degradations of provincial officials frequent, he failed to achieve
anything radical.

TRANSFER OF THE CAPITAL TO KYOTO

The reign of Kwammu is remarkable for two things: the conquest of the
eastern Yemishi by Tamuramaro and the transfer of the capital from
Nara to Kyoto. Nara is in the province of Yamato; Kyoto, in the
neighbouring province of Yamashiro,* and the two places lie twenty
miles apart as the crow flies. It has been stated that to change the
site of the capital on the accession of a sovereign was a common
custom in Japan prior to the eighth century. In those early days the
term "miyako," though used in the sense of "metropolis," bore chiefly
the meaning "Imperial residence," and to alter its locality did not
originally suggest a national effort. But when Kwammu ascended the
throne, Nara had been the capital during eight reigns, covering a
period of seventy-five years, and had grown into a great city, a
centre alike of religion and of trade. To transfer it involved a
correspondingly signal sacrifice. What was Kwammu's motive? Some have
conjectured a desire to shake off the priestly influences which
permeated the atmosphere of Nara; others, that he found the Yamato
city too small to satisfy his ambitious views or to suit the quickly
developing dimensions and prosperity of the nation. Probably both
explanations are correct. Looking back only a few years, a ruler of
Kwammu's sagacity must have appreciated that religious fanaticism, as
practised at Nara, threatened to overshadow even the Imperial Court,
and that the influence of the foreign creed tended to undermine the
Shinto cult, which constituted the main bulwark of the Throne.

*Previously to becoming the metropolitan province, Yamashiro was
written with ideographs signifying "behind the mountain" (yama no
ushiro), but these were afterwards changed to "mountain castle"
(yamashiro).

We shall presently see how this latter danger was averted at Kyoto,
and it certainly does not appear extravagant to credit Kwammu with
having promoted that result. At all events, he was not tempted by the
superior advantages of any other site in particular. In 784, when he
adopted the resolve to found a new capital, it was necessary to
determine the place by sending out a search party under his most
trusted minister, Fujiwara Tanetsug