Amaterasu Omikami

Mythology holds that Amaterasu Omikami was a goddess identified with the sun and the ancestor of the imperial house. Her grandson was dispatched to pacify Japan and his great-grandson became the first emperor, Jimmu, one of the numerous mythological emperors. The center of worship for Amaterasu Omikami is Ise Shrine, the main shrine of the imperial family.

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Heian period
The Heian period (797-1185) is named after its capital city, Heian-kyo, now called Kyoto. Japan’s capital had moved frequently before the Heian period, but now settled in one place until Tokyo was made the formal capital in 1868. During this era, Chinese cultural influences were absorbed and transformed into a recognizably Japanese culture. The period saw the flowering of aristocratic culture which remained a major model of civilization thereafter. Politically, the period is easily divided into two or more epochs with at least the second half seeing the decay of the central government and rise of provincial power centers controlled by military families. The imperial court was, in theory, controlled by the imperial family working through a bureaucracy modeled after the Chinese institution, but the Fujiwara family controlled and manipulated politics to a large extent. Early in the Heian period there were great achievements in literature, both poetry (written by men and, to a lesser degree, women) and novels written by women. The most famous novel from this period is ‘The Tale of Genji’ by Murasaki Shikibu.

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