Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 18, 2007



The Heian Palace was the original imperial palace of Heian-kyō, the capital of Japan from 794 to 1227. The Palace, which served as the imperial residence and the administrative centre of Japan for most of the Heian Period (from 794 to 1185), was at a north-central location within the city in accordance with the Chinese models used for the design of the capital. The Palace encompassed a large rectangular walled enclosure, which contained several ceremonial and administrative buildings including the government ministries. Inside this enclosure was the separately walled residential compound of the emperor or the Inner Palace. In addition to the emperor's living quarters, the Inner Palace contained the residences of the imperial consorts, as well as certain official and ceremonial buildings more closely linked to the person of the emperor. In 1227 the Palace was burned down and never reconstructed again. The site was built over so that almost no trace of it remains. Knowledge of the palace is thus based on contemporary literary sources, surviving diagrams and paintings, and limited excavations conducted mainly since the late 1970s. (more...)

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