But it also represents a break with centuries of tradition as the first era name to have been inspired by a Japanese, rather than Chinese, work of classical literature.

as为介词，as the first era name为介词短语。介词短语作状语。将介词的宾语解释成主语的同位语，忽视介词的存在，这是错误的分析。我举一个类似结构的句子：

He attended the meeting as the representative of the company. 他作为公司代表出席了会议。as介词短语是方式状语。不能说as的宾语是主语的同位语。