Wikipedia
The Japanese word Heian (平安, lit. "peace") may refer to:
- Heian period, an era of Japanese history
- Heian-kyō, the Heian-period capital of Japan that has become the present-day city of Kyoto
- Heian series, a group of karate kata (forms)
- Heian Shrine, a large shrine in the city of Kyoto
Usage examples of "heian".
In any event, after several failures, armies dispatched by the Heian court finally inflicted decisive defeat on the Emishi in the early years of the ninth century and thus eliminated the threat posed by these ferocious tribesmen on the eastern frontier.
Tendai that, beginning in the late Heian period, spawned the various popular sects that finally spread Buddhism to tiie common people throughout Japan.
Enryakuji Temple became a great national center for Buddhist studies in Japan, the particular kind of Buddhism that exerted the strongest influence at court during the early Heian period was Tantrism.
Known also as esoteric Buddhism because of its insistence on the secret transmission of its teachings, Tantrism came to hold a unique appeal for the aristocracy of the Heian court and provided a powerful stimulus to the arts in Japan during the ninth and tenth centuries.
And indeed in the Heian period the exceptional visual attraction of the mandalas and other Shingon icons greatly helped to endear esotericism to the Kyoto courtiers, who were finely sensitive to beauty in all its forms.
It is not surprising, then, that the Heian courtiers found congenial a sect like Shingon, which similarly asserted a fixed hierarchy among its pantheon of deities headed by Dainichi.
It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that esoteric Buddhism, particularly during the ninth and tenth centuries, permeated every aspect of the lives of the Heian aristocracy.
Nevertheless, they are faithful reproductions and, in the absence of other buildings, give us at least some idea of what the capital looked like in early Heian times.
To accept and occupy a provincial post, the courtier was obliged not only to forsake the comforts and cultural attractions of the Heian capital, but also to suffer diminished status and even risk social opprobrium.
Chinese ideographs to represent Japanese phonetics, and the Heian courtiers found it obscure and difficult to read.
The most distinctive feature of this work, as of all literary or artistic diaries of the Heian period, is the inclusion of a large number of poems.
In the diaries of the Heian period, poems are presented as the distinct compositions of one person to another and usually serve as a means for the expression of their most strongly felt emotions.
On the other hand, the scent of a delicately mixed perfume or the haunting notes of a zithern on a soft summer night could excite his greatest passion and launch him recklessly on a romantic escapade whose outcome was more than likely to have embarrassing and even disastrous results both for the lovers and for others among the intimately associated members of Heian courtier society.
Japanese homes, those of the Heian courtiers had partitions, sliding doors, and shutters mat could readily be removed to make smaller rooms into larger ones and to open the whole interior of a building to the out-of-doors.
Although chairs were coming into general use in China about this time, they were not adopted by the Heian Japanese except for certain ceremonial purposes.