On the nineteenth of the third month of the sixth year of Emperor Tenji, the capital was moved to Omi. The people of the realm did not want the move, and many criticized it in veiled words and remonstrated. Many satirical songs were sung, and fires broke out here and there, day and night.
Four years had passed since the defeat at the Paekch'on River. Fearing an invasion by Tang and Silla, Prince Naka-no-Oe (Emperor Tenji) chose Otsu in Omi for his new capital: far from the Inland Sea, and linked by boats on Lake Biwa to the eastern provinces and the north. In the eleventh month of that year the forts of Takayasu in Yamato, Yashima in Sanuki and Kaneda on Tsushima were also built.
On the third of the first month of the seventh year, the crown prince at last took the throne. More than six years had passed since Empress Saimei's death, during which he had ruled without being enthroned. In the second month he made Yamato-hime, daughter of Prince Furuhito-no-Oe, his empress.
On the fifth of the fifth month, the emperor held a medicine hunt (gathering herbs and young deer antlers) on the plain of Gamo. The crown prince's brother (Prince Oama), the princes, the inner minister and all the courtiers went with him. The poems in the Man'yoshu by Princess Nukata, "Going through the fields of madder-red, through the purple fields…", and by Prince Oama, "If I hated you, glowing like the purple flower…", are said to have been composed at the banquet that day.
It is also said that in this year the emperor ordered Fujiwara no Kamatari to draw up laws. The capital at Omi lasted little more than five years before the Jinshin War left it in ruins. Later, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro visited the deserted site and mourned the lost capital in his poem, "Though the great bay of Shiga at Sasanami lies still…".