Database: Yamato

Yamato was one of the provinces in the region (what is now Nara Prefecture), roughly corresponding to a basin of the same name. Yamato has been, since the ancient times of the burial tombs (kofun), the center of political power, maintained until 784 with the capital Nara (Heijō-kyō). In fact, the word Yamato was the actual name of the country before it became Japan at the end of the 7th century. In poetry, Yamato is still used to refer to Japan.

In Yamato, there are many of the country's most important shrines and monasteries, the Kasuga Shrine located in Nara, a place of veneration for the ancestors of the Fujiwara family who ruled the imperial court throughout the ancient period. The Kōfuku-ji, the center of the Hossō school, which became a large landowner (shōen) during the medieval period and even took on the role of shugo, the military governor of the Yamato province as a Buddhist temple, a rather exceptional situation. This indicates the predominant position of this temple, which maintained armed forces, the warrior monks.