Fujiwara Palace Site

Before Nara, before Kyoto, there was Fujiwara-kyo. The Fujiwara Palace Site marks the heart of Japan's first true planned capital, established in 694 during the reign of Empress Jito. For sixteen pivotal years, until the court moved north to Nara in 710, this was the political and ceremonial centre of the emerging Japanese state, and standing here today gives a rare, uncluttered sense of that beginning.

Fujiwara-kyo was Japan's first attempt to build a capital on the grand Chinese model, a sprawling grid city inspired by the great Tang dynasty capital of Chang'an. At its core lay the palace precinct, containing the Dairi, or imperial residence, and the Daigokuden, the vast hall where the emperor conducted affairs of state and received officials. The whole city covered an area of more than twenty square kilometres, guarded by the three sacred hills known as the Yamato Sanzan — Mount Unebi, Mount Miminashi and Mount Kagu — which poets of the age celebrated and which still frame the horizon today. It was here that the Taiho Code, the legal foundation of the classical Japanese realm, was promulgated, and here that many of the institutions of imperial government took shape.

What remains now is deliberately restrained: a wide, flat expanse of grassland dotted with marker posts, reconstructed pillar bases and interpretive signs showing where the great halls and gates once stood. There are no towering reconstructions, and that emptiness is part of the appeal — you can walk the actual ground the court walked, with the three mountains ringing you exactly as they ringed the ancient city. In summer the site becomes unexpectedly beautiful, when large flower beds of lotus, cosmos and other seasonal blooms are planted across parts of the ruins, drawing photographers and families. In spring, cherry trees soften the edges of the field.

The site is designated a Special Historic Site and, together with the wider Asuka-Fujiwara area, is a candidate for World Heritage listing in recognition of its role in the birth of the Japanese state. To make sense of what you are seeing, it is well worth pairing a visit with the nearby Nara Prefectural Archaeological Institute museum in Kashihara, which displays excavated tiles, wooden documents and models that bring the vanished city vividly back to life.

Because the ground is completely open and free to enter at any time, Fujiwara is best approached slowly. Bring water, wear a hat in summer, and give yourself time to walk out to the centre where the Daigokuden stood.

Getting there: the site lies in Kashihara, roughly a 20-minute walk from Unebi-gozen Station, and is also served by local community buses. Cyclists exploring the flat Asuka countryside can fold it easily into a route taking in Ishibutai, the painted tombs and Kashihara Jingu. Come on a clear day, look up at the three mountains, and you are standing at the very spot where the idea of a permanent Japanese capital was first made real.