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Towards the end of the Nara Period (710-794), when Japan was wracked by rebellions and upheaval, the capital was moved from Nara to Nagaoka in 784 by the Japanese Imperial family, and to Heiankyo (Capital of Peace and Tranquillity), or Heian, about twenty-six kilometers north of Nara in 794. Like Nara, Heian was laid out according to a grid pattern, following the Chinese model. By the late eleventh century, the city was popularly called Kyoto (Capital City), the name it has had every since. The Heian period was one of the great periods of artistic development in Japan. Contacts with China were interrupted toward the end of the ninth century, and Japan's civilization began to take on its own special characteristics and forms. This was a process of assimilation and adaptation by which things introduced from outside gradually assumed an essentially Japanese style. The most typical instance of this process was the development during the Heian period of a Japanese script. The complexity of Chinese writing led writers and priests to work out two sets of syllabic systems based upon Chinese forms. The Heian Period is sometimes divided into two period: the Fujiwara Period (858-1160), which began when Fujiwara-no-Kiyomori took power in 858, ushering in a period of stability; and the Taira Period (1160-1185), which began when Taira-no Kiyomori assumed control in 1160.
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