u. The choice of Tanetsugu fell,
not upon Kyoto, but upon Nagaoka in the same province. There was no
hesitation. The Emperor trusted Tanetsugu implicitly and appointed
him chief commissioner of the building, which was commenced at once,
a decree being issued that all taxes for the year should be paid at
Nagaoka where also forced labourers were required to assemble and
materials were collected. The Records state that the area of the site
for the new palace measured 152 acres, for which the owners received
compensation amounting to the equivalent of L2580 ($12,550); or an
average of L17 ($82) per acre. The number of people employed is put
at 314,000,* and the fund appropriated, at 680,000 sheaves of rice,
having a value of about L40,800 ($200,000) according to modern
prices.

*This does not mean that 314,000 persons were employed
simultaneously, but only that the number of workmen multiplied by the
number of days of work equalled 314,000.

The palace was never finished. While it was still uncompleted, the
Emperor took up his abode there, in the fall of 784, and efforts to
hasten the work were redoubled. But a shocking incident occurred. The
Crown Prince, Sagara, procured the elevation of a member of the Saeki
family to the high post of State councillor (sangi), and having been
impeached for this unprecedented act by Fujiwara Tanetsugu, was
deprived of his title to the throne. Shortly afterwards, the Emperor
repaired to Nara, and during the absence of the Court from Nagaoka,
Prince Sagara compassed the assassination of Tanetsugu. Kwammu
exacted stern vengeance for his favourite minister. He disgraced the
prince and sent him into exile in the island of Awaji, which place he
did not reach alive, as was perhaps designed.

ENGRAVING: COURTYARD OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE, AT KYOTO

These occurrences moved the Emperor so profoundly that Nagaoka became
intolerable to him. Gradually the work of building was abandoned,
and, in 792, a new site was selected by Wake no Kiyomaro at Uda in
the same province. So many attractions were claimed for this village
that failure to choose it originally becomes difficult to understand.
Imperial decrees eulogized its mountains and rivers, and people
recalled a prediction uttered 170 years previously by Prince Shotoku
that the place would ultimately be selected for the perpetual capital
of the empire. The Tang metropolis, Changan, was taken for model.
Commenced in April, 794, the new metropolis wa