Nara Japan · 710-794

Nara: Japan's first great capital

In 710 Japan built its first great capital, Heijo-kyo, on the model of Tang Chang'an. Students explore how Japan borrowed Chinese writing, laws and Buddhism, and why an emperor raised a bronze Buddha about 15 m tall.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, AD 710 to AD 753
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In 710 Japan built its first great capital, Heijo-kyo, on the model of Tang Chang'an. Students explore how Japan borrowed Chinese writing, laws and Buddhism, and why an emperor raised a bronze Buddha about 15 m tall.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe Heijo-kyo (Nara) and how it was modelled on Chang'an.
  • Explain how Buddhism and Chinese culture shaped Nara Japan.
  • Explain why the capital moved to Heian-kyo in 794.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 710

Buddhism reaches Japan

Open the map in 710 and turn on Spreads > Buddhism. Find where the spread reaches the Japanese court at Asuka, just south of Nara. Which countries did Buddhism pass through to get there?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 710

A copy of Chang'an

Zoom in on the Nara basin. Heijo-kyo was laid out here in 710 as a grid of streets with the palace in the north, like Chang'an. Why might a young state copy a famous foreign capital?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 753

Across the sea

Pan west across the sea to Tang China in 753. Japanese envoys and monks crossed here in small ships. Why was the journey so dangerous?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why did Japan copy Chang'an when it built Heijo-kyo?
  2. A smallpox epidemic in 735-737 killed perhaps a quarter to a third of the people. How might that have made rulers turn to religion?
  3. The Shosoin storehouse in Nara still holds glass and instruments that came along the Silk Road. How could objects from Persia reach Japan?
  4. Japan wrote its first histories with Chinese characters. What problems would that cause for writing Japanese?
  5. Why might an emperor move his capital away from powerful temples?
4

Game round

9 min

Rule History has no Japanese ruler from this time, so play Wu Zetian, who ruled Tang China just before Japan built Heijo-kyo. Let students take turns ruling. Discuss: what made Tang China so attractive to Japanese envoys and monks?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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