The Dazaifu (大宰府or太宰府) is a Japanese term for the regional government in Kyushu from the 8th to the 12th centuries.[1] The name may also refer to the seat of government which grew into the modern city of DazaifuinFukuoka Prefecture.[2]
The Dazaifu was established in northwest Kyushu the late 7th century.[3] The town of Dazaifu grew up around the civil and military headquarters of the regional government.[4]
During the 8th and 9th centuries, records refer to Dazaifu as "the distant capital".[3]
In 1268, envoys bearing letters from Kublai Khan appeared at the Dazaifu court. There were a series of envoys which came before the unsuccessful invasion of 1274.[5]
Sometimes there was an official Absentee Governor (Dazai-no-sotsu). This title was only given to Imperial princes. Among those holding this office was Takaharu-shinnō who would later become Emperor Go-Daigo.[8]
Dazaifu is the name of the place where regional government was centered in the late Nara period through the Muromachi period.[9] It is the town which grew up around the government center in the 7th through the 12th centuries. It is also the name of the small city which continued to grow even after the regional government center was moved.
The Dazaifu is the name of the civil government on the island of Kyūshū.[11] As it grew and developed, a large complex of government offices (都府楼跡, Tofuro-ato) was built for the use of the hierarchy of bureaucrats. The many buildings were arranged along a symmetrical grid,[12] not far from the Buddhist temple complex at Kanzeon-ji (観世音寺).[13]
Dazaifu is a metonym of the official position at the head of the regional government. It is also a metonym for the person who fills this leadership role.
^Adolphson, Mikael S. et al. (2007). Heian Japan, Centers and Peripheries, pp. 5-6., p. 5, at Google Books; excerpt, "... the Dazaifu -- the governmental headquarters in northern Kyushu -- was a center in its own right ... earned the epithet 'the capital of the western periphery' (saikyoku no daijō)"
