The Western Capital

Dazaifu: The Western Capital

Some 1,300 years ago, the city of Dazaifu in northern Kyushu was an administrative and cultural center second only to the imperial capital. Far to the east, the imperial capital was moved from Asuka to Nara, then eventually to Heian (Kyoto) over several centuries, but Dazaifu persisted in its role as “capital of the West” (nishi no miyako).

Northern Kyushu’s transition from a regional hub to a place of national importance began around 663, when Japan suffered a military defeat on the Korean Peninsula. Fearing an invasion would follow, the imperial court ordered the construction of a series of large-scale fortifications to guard Hakata Bay, the chief port for ships coming from the Asian mainland. No invasion came, but in the early eighth century the city of Dazaifu was constructed in the newly fortified mountain basin to the south. Its layout was modeled on the sophisticated grid system of the Tang-dynasty capital of Chang’an, in China. A Japanese envoy who had visited Chang’an returned to Japan and drew up a similar plan for the imperial capital at Nara. He then designed Dazaifu along the same pattern.

When the new city was founded, Hakata Bay had been the entry point for foreign culture and technology for centuries. During the Nara period (710–794), this exchange reached its peak, and Dazaifu became the gateway through which foreign dignitaries, goods, and cultural influence poured into Japan. Arriving diplomats were welcomed at a lavish guesthouse, just as they were in the imperial capital. Dazaifu also had imperial administrative offices, a school for training administrators, and Buddhist temples founded in honor of imperial family members. Dazaifu’s extensive bureaucracy managed the taxes, economy, and security of most of Kyushu.

Former administration building sites, ancient temples, and other relics of the 1,300-year-old urban center can still be found throughout the present-day cities of Dazaifu, Chikushino, and Ōnojō, where the memory of this ancient western capital lives on.

Location map of constituent cultural properties

Click on the image to enlarge

Cultural properties in Onojo  city

• Ōnojō Fortress Ruins
• Mizuki Fortress Ruins
• Ushikubi Sue Ware Kiln Ruins: Umegashira Kiln
• Inscribed Sue Ware
• Mikasa Forest
• Zen’ichida Burial Mounds

Ōnojō Fortress Ruins

Built in 665, this immense walled fortress once ringed the summit of Mt. Shiōji, north of Dazaifu. Along with a smaller fortification to the south, Ōnojō Fortress is Japan’s oldest known mountain fortress. More than 1,350 years after its construction, large sections of the perimeter wall remain intact.

Ōnojō Fortress was conceived as one of several fortifications intended to guard the Hakata Bay area. In 663, the remnants of the Korean kingdom of Baekje (? CE–660 CE) and its Japanese allies had been defeated by the combined forces of Tang-dynasty China (618–907) and Silla (? CE–935 CE), another Korean kingdom. The loss spurred the Japanese imperial court, which was fearful of an invasion by rapidly expanding Tang, to order the construction of Mizuki Fortress in 664, then the mountain fortresses Ōnojō and Kiijō in 665. Ōnojō Fortress was a vantage point from which to observe enemy ships heading toward Hakata Bay.

Unlike many later castles, Ōnojō Fortress never had a tall central keep or series of moats. At its center was a camp encircled by 8 kilometers of earthen and stone walls. Exiled nobles from Baekje oversaw the construction, patterning Ōnojō Fortress after mountain fortresses on the Korean Peninsula. They introduced construction techniques that allowed for the creation of stone walls up to 8 meters in height. Where Ōnojō’s perimeter wall ran along ridgetops, it was built of rammed earth, but sections in the valleys were made of stone. Researchers have discovered the ruins of 9 gates and over 70 buildings, including storehouses and administrative headquarters in the central camp. Ultimately there was no invasion, but Ōnojō Fortress was manned and functional until around the tenth century.

Many sections of both the earthen embankments and the stone walls survive. To see them, visitors can take one of the hiking trails from Ōnojō Sōgō Kōen (Madoka Park) or drive to the Shiōji Kenmin no Mori Center on the mountain and walk from there.

Mizuki Fortress Ruins

This 1.2-kilometer-long, heavily fortified earthen embankment was the first and only fortress of its kind. It was built in the mid-seventh century to defend Kyushu against foreign armies coming from Hakata Bay. Half a century later, it had become the Asian continent’s gateway to Japan.

In 664, Japan’s rulers feared an invasion from the Asian continent, and Hakata Bay seemed the most likely place for foreign ships to land. Just south of the bay was a large plain surrounded by mountains. If it could be fortified, this extremely defensible base would halt the advance of an invading army, effectively pinning it in the bay area.

To this end, the imperial court ordered the construction of a monumental barrier—an enormous earthen wall—to close the gap between two mountains south of the bay and block entry into the plain. Constructed using techniques from the Korean Peninsula, the Mizuki Fortress wall was 10 meters high. On its north side, the fortress had a 60-meter-wide moat that exceeded the maximum range of bows at the time. There were two gates, one to the east and one to the west. The western gate was reinforced with stone walls, and although the eastern one has not been excavated, it is presumed to have been the same. The earthen embankment was constructed of layer upon layer of soil, clay, and sand tamped down to form a solid, durable mound.

At that time, the Mikasa River flowed north to Hakata Bay through the center of where the new fortress was being built. Some research indicates that river water may have been directed through channels lined with stones; water flowed over them and beneath the embankment to fill the moat. Water was also drawn from surrounding river valleys. This clever use of water as a form of defense gave the fortress its name: “Mizuki” means “water castle.”

After the fear of invasion faded, Mizuki Fortress became the city of Dazaifu’s northern wall. Beginning in the late seventh century, foreign dignitaries and merchants were received in Dazaifu before they traveled east to the imperial capital. They entered through the fortress’s west gate, making it the literal and symbolic gateway to Japan. On the opposite end, Japanese officials and other domestic visitors coming from Nara or Kyoto entered Dazaifu through the east gate. Mizuki Fortress acted as a gateway until the twelfth century, even after its defensive role had ended.

Today, large sections of the Mizuki Fortress embankment can still be seen in Dazaifu and Ōnojō. The ruins of the west gate are located a few minutes’ walk from Mizuki Yume Hiroba Park.

Ushikubi Sue Ware Kiln Ruins: Umegashira Kiln

Techniques for firing the extremely hard, ash-colored pottery known as Sue ware were brought from the Korean Peninsula in the fifth century. Production at Ushikubi began in the sixth century, and it became Kyushu’s largest Sue-ware production site. One of the kilns has been preserved in situ to illustrate the process.

The ruins of over 600 ancient kilns have been discovered in the cities of Ōnojō, Kasuga, and Dazaifu, evidence of a once-thriving production center for Sue ware. Sue ware is a type of stoneware pottery introduced from Korea in the early fifth century. Production at the Ushikubi site was underway during the sixth century, and it expanded further in the eighth century as Dazaifu grew into a major city. To make Sue ware, craftsmen shaped clay on a potter’s wheel, then fired it at high temperatures to create durable, unglazed vessels with a characteristic bluish-gray color. The Ushikubi kilns produced a variety of pieces, including ritual vessels, tableware, and roof tiles.

The kilns were earthen tunnels—some as long as 11 meters—constructed in a slope. The unfired pottery was arranged inside on stones or depressions scraped into the earth’s surface. Below them, at the base of the slope, wood was piled inside the tunnel entrance. A fire was lit, and the burning wood produced intense heat and smoke that rose up through the tunnel, firing the pottery. At the top, one to six vents could be opened or closed to release smoke and regulate the heat. Once the kiln reached an appropriate temperature, its entrance was sealed. Temperatures inside the kilns could exceed 1,000 degrees Celsius, hot enough to maintain combustion even in the absence of oxygen. It was this oxygen-free environment that produced Sue ware’s characteristic gray color. (Pieces fired in the presence of oxygen turn red.)

 Firing Sue ware consumed a large amount of wood, so artisans used a kiln only until they had exhausted all of the fuel in the area. Consequently, kilns were built farther and farther uphill in pursuit of lumber from the still-forested mountains. After a kiln fell out of use, it was usually abandoned as-is. Occasionally, however, it became the grave of the craftsman who had used it. In such cases, the artisans were buried inside the earthen tunnels with their personal belongings, which included iron swords and knives, arrowheads, ear adornments, and jars of red pigment.

One of the Ushikubi kilns, called the Umegashira Kiln Ruin, has been preserved largely intact and is open to visitors.

Inscribed Sue Ware

As one of the largest producers of the valuable stoneware pottery known as Sue ware, the Ushikubi area paid its taxes to Dazaifu in the form of these vessels. Historical records mention this practice, but the tax notations inscribed on these pieces are physical proof, giving further insight into the taxation system of the eighth century.

Excavations at the Ushikubi Sue Ware Kiln Ruins have produced pieces of Sue ware inscribed with the taxpayer’s name and town of residence, the year of remittance, and notations pertaining to tax amounts. Such vessels are called heragaki sueki, or “spatula-inscribed Sue ware,” as the artisans used sharp-edged, wooden pottery spatulas to etch Chinese characters into the clay before firing.

The high-quality Sue vessels, with their smooth, less-porous surfaces, represented a major advance in Japanese ceramics. Sue ware craftsmen paid their taxes in pottery to Dazaifu officials, who collected and recorded them before sending the vessels on to the imperial capital.

The government offices at Dazaifu managed taxes in what is now Kyushu as a part of a wide-reaching administrative organization called the ritsuryō system: a series of legal codes implemented in the mid-seventh century in imitation of the rigorous political administration of Tang-dynasty China (618–907). The new codes established a Ministry of the Treasury that oversaw taxation of the provinces and tribute to the emperor. The discovery of heragaki Sue ware in Dazaifu is tangible evidence that this system operated just as the records indicate.

The inscriptions on the vessels also hint at the cultural exchange that led to the development of Sue ware itself. Some of the makers’ names recorded on the vessels are thought to be those of immigrants from the Korean Peninsula.

Heragaki Sue ware and many other artifacts uncovered in the area are on display at the Ōnojō Cocoro-no-furusato-kan City Museum.

Mikasa Forest

This modest grove, once a larger forest, has an illustrious history. Linked to an empress, named in one of Japan’s first written records, and the inspiration for a love poem written by a respected poet, Mikasa Forest is a tranquil place to connect with Dazaifu’s distant past.

This forest’s name, Mikasa no Mori, means “hat forest.” It derives from a legend about Empress Jingū Kōgō (traditional dates 169–269). The empress was supposedly traveling near the forest when a sudden whirlwind blew her conical hat into the trees. This tale was recorded in the eighth-century historical chronicle Nihon shoki, one of Japan’s oldest written records.

In the eighth century, officials traveling to and from the imperial capital in Nara passed through Mikasa Forest and admired its beauty and serenity. Some of them wrote poems mentioning it, among them Ōtomo no Momoyo, a high-ranking eighth-century official in the Dazaifu government. Momoyo’s love poem is included in the Man’yōshū, the oldest surviving collection of Japanese poetry. In it, Momoyo proclaims his sincere devotion to his beloved:

 

omowanu o

omō to iwaba

ōno naru

mikasa no mori no

kami shi shirasamu

 

Were I to profess

a love I did not feel,

the spirit that dwells

in Ōno’s Mikasa Wood

would surely know me false.

Today, Mikasa Forest is a quiet spot with a small shrine to Empress Jingū Kōgō and a large stone inscribed with Momoyo’s poem.

Zen’ichida Burial Mounds

These kofun, or ancient burial mounds, date to the latter sixth through seventh centuries. The tombs were built for local ironworkers, whose profession made them high-ranking members of local society. Pottery from the Korean Peninsula was found in the tombs, indicating active trade and cultural exchange a century before Dazaifu’s construction.

The Zen’ichida Burial Mounds were built in the latter sixth and seventh centuries—relatively late in the Kofun period (third to seventh century). Beginning in the mid-third century, burial mounds were constructed by the ruling elite of various regions across Japan as a display of wealth and power. By the time the Zen’ichida kofun were built, the practice had spread to lesser local elites. Researchers believe the oldest and largest mound at Zen’ichida (No. 18) belonged to a local chieftain.

The nine tombs preserved at Zen’ichida have a round, domed shape, which was common for kofun at this time. The innermost burial chambers have walls and ceilings that were made with stones, often massive ones weighing several tons. Because of the region’s acidic soil, no bones or other remains have survived. However, the deceased were buried with their belongings, and many of these have been found. They include a number of iron objects—rare in Japan at the time—such as tools, swords, and horse tack (stirrups and bridle components). These discoveries give archaeologists glimpses into the lives of people at the time.

The technologies of ironworking and horseback riding had arrived through exchange with the Korean Peninsula. Clay vessels from the kingdom of Silla (? CE–935 CE) and even glass beads from what is now Iraq have been found, indicating extensive trade networks linking this society to continental Asia.

A total of 30 mounds have been found in this kofun group, two of which have never been excavated. The construction of kofun in the Dazaifu area (and across the country) is thought to have died out as society moved toward a centralized legal system and local rulers were under less pressure to display their authority.