Fujiwara (family)

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The Fujiwara family ( Japanese 藤原 氏 , Fujiwara-shi ) was an influential family of rulers of Japan who for a long time had a kind of monopoly on the positions of regent for the emperors Sesshō and Kampaku . The founder of the family, Nakatomi no Kamatari ( 中 臣 鎌 足 ) (614–669), was given this surname by Emperor Tenji when he was already dying . They dominated Japanese politics in the Heian period , but were also influential in subsequent periods.

Nara time

Family tree of the Fujiwara family

Fujiwara political influence began during the Nara period . Nakatomi no Kamatari , a member of the lower nobility ( uji ) Nakatomi clan , sided with Prince Naka no Ōe (the future Emperor Tenji ) when the imperial authority of the Soga clan was challenged. Naka no Ōe and Nakatomi no Kamatari led a coup against the Soga in 645 and initiated a series of far-reaching government reforms (the so-called. Taika Reform ), which then in Ritsuryō led -State. In 669, Emperor Tenji (government 661–671) gave Kamatari the title ( Kabane ) Fujiwara no Ason when he was already on his deathbed. The name was passed on to the descendants of Fujiwara no Fuhito (659-720), the second son and heir of Kamatari, who was important at the court of several emperors and empresses. He achieved the rank of " Chancellor on the right ." He made his daughter Miyako the concubine of Emperor Mommu . Her son, Prince Obito, later became Emperor Shōmu .

Fuhito (= Fubito ), who already served under Temmu -Tennō, succeeded in making another daughter, Kōmyō (shi), Empress of Shōmu . She was the first empress who did not come from the imperial family. He was awarded a benefice of 5,000 houses for special services by Mommu (707/4/15).

Fuhito had four sons, each of whom started a family, who then developed into the "houses" of the Fujiwara: Fusasaki the southern, Umakai the rite house, Maro the main town house and Muchimaro the northern house ( Hokke ), which usurped power and was considered a leader in the whole clan.

All descendants of the third generation, u. a. Muchimaro (680–737) and Fusasaki (682–737) fell victim to the 737 smallpox epidemic.

Fujiwara no Nakamaro was chancellor and confidante of the Junnin Tennō and was (like his brother Hirotsugu ) executed when he fell in 765.

Fujiwara no Nagate ( 藤原 永 手 , 717–71), son of Fusasaki, great-grandson of Kamatari. At Shōtoku's death he helped to appoint Konins , who gave him the degree of first rank. He brought it to the "Chancellor of the Right", served the emperors Shōmu, Kōken , Junnin , Shōtoku and Kōnin. The title of Grand Chancellor was awarded to him posthumously by Emperor Konin.

Fujiwara no Toyonari († 765), eldest son of Muchimaro . Under Kōnin "Chancellor on the right", deposed because of complicity in the rebellion of the former Crown Prince Funabe (757), is sent to Kyushu as special commander of Dazai-fu . Because of illness he only got as far as Osaka. In 764 he was rehabilitated and again chancellor.

Fujiwara no Tanetsugu ( 藤原 種 継 , 737-85), grandson of Fujiwara no Umakai , offspring of the Shikike branch of the family, the main proponent of the relocation of the capital ( Nagaoka-kyō ), and chief manager of the new buildings (Minister of the Office of Rites [ Shikibushō], in 3rd court rank) for Emperor Kammu . He is shot in Nagaoka "in the island street of the Nagaoka residence by the Toneri (bodyguard) Sukune no Wojika and the Kozumi Hahaki-himaro ." (785/12/23; Nihon Ryōiki )

Fujiwara no Naramaro was the son of Fuhito's youngest daughter, whom Tachibana no Moroe had married.

Heian period

During the Heian period , the Hokke succeeded in establishing an inheritance claim to the position of regent for either the underage emperor ( Sesshō ) or the adult emperor ( kampaku ). Some important Fujiwaras occupied these positions more than once and for more than one emperor. Less significant members were court aristocrats, provincial governors and vice-governors, members of the provincial aristocracy or even simple samurai . The Fujiwara were the most influential of the 4 great families who ruled Japanese politics during the Heian period (794–1185). The others were the Tachibana , Taira and Minamoto . The Fujiwara had enormous power, especially during the reigns in the 10th and 11th centuries, and ruled the country through the emperor as a puppet.

The Fujiwara dominated the government of Japan from 794 to 1160. There is no clear starting point; the establishment of the first shogunate under Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1192 can be seen as the end of their dominant influence on civil government .

The Fujiwara princes initially served as the highest ministers of the imperial court ( kampaku ) and regents ( sesshō ) for underage emperors. The Fujiwara pulled the strings of government in this position for centuries. Apparently they never planned to replace the imperial dynasty. Instead, the clan's influence came from its marriage policies. Since the wives of the crown princes and the younger sons of the emperors, as well as the emperor himself in general, were always Fujiwara, the male heads were often the emperor's father-in-law, uncles or grandfather. The family reached the pinnacle of their power under Fujiwara no Michinaga (966-1028), a long-time Kampaku who was the grandfather of three emperors, father of six empresses or imperial wives and the grandfather of another seven imperial wives. It is no exaggeration to say that Michinaga (and not the actual emperor) ruled Japan.

descent

Only 40 years after Michinaga's death, the Fujiwara were unable to prevent the accession of Emperor Go-Sanjō (ruled 1068-1073), the first emperor since Uda (ruled 887-897), whose mother was not Fujiwara. The system of government by a abdicated emperor who retired to a monastery ( daijō tennō ), from 1087 onwards, weakened the control of the Fujiwara over the imperial court. A granddaughter of Fujiwara no Tomayasu was the poet Sugawara no Takasue no Musume .

The Heian period, dominated by the Fujiwara, was drawing to a close with the unrest in the 12th century. The dynastic battle known as the Hōgen Rebellion ( Hōgen no Ran ) led to the rise of the Taira as the most important clan in 1156. In 1160 the Taira defeated the coalition of Fujiwara and Minamoto during the Heiji Rebellion ( Heiji no Ran ). This defeat marked the end of Fujiwara influence.

cleavage

In the 13th century, the Hokke split into 5 regent houses (五 摂 家go-sekke ): Konoe , Takatsukasa , Kujō , Nijō and Ichijō . These had a kind of monopoly on the offices of Sesshō and Kampaku, which they occupied alternately. Political power had shifted from the court nobility in Kyoto to the new class of warriors in the countryside. The Fujiwara princes, however, remained close advisers, regents and ministers to the emperor until the 20th century. As such, they always had a certain political influence and political power, so that the rival warriors and later military governments ( Bakufu ) often asked for an alliance with them. Fujiwara Seika was a 16th century Confucian scholar.

Beginning with the end of the Heian period, the Hokke house was divided into a multitude of branches. The following lines arose around 1400: from the go-sekke houses that provided regents:

such as

  • Kan'in branch: Saionji , Ōmiya, Shimizudani, Tōin, Ōgimachi, Sanjō , Ōgimachi-Sanjō, Sanjōnishi, Shigenoi, Kawabata, Ano, Anegakōji, Mushanokōji, Oshinokōji, Takamatsu, Imadegawa, Tokura, Urudatsuji, Ogudatsuji Kawara
  • Kazan'in branch: Kazan'in, Horikawa, Nakayama, Oimikado, Namba, Asukai
  • Nakamikado branch: Nakamikado (Matsuki), Bōmon, Sono, Mibu, Rokkaku
  • Mikohidari branch: Reizei, Fujigaya, Irie
  • Hino branch: Hino, Toyama, Toyooka, Hirobashi, Hinonishi, Takenoya, Yanagibara, Kitanokōji, Machi (Hinomachi), Karasumaru, Kadenokōji, Uramatsu
  • Kaūji branch: Kaūji, Kanroji, Bōjō, Madenokōji, Seiganji, Nakamikado, Hamuro, Hachijō, Machi
  • Shijō branch: Shijō , Nishiōji, Aburakōji, Washio, Yamashina
  • Minase branch: Minase, Machigami, Sakurai, Yamanoi
  • Takakura branch: Takakura, Horikawa, Higuchi

the Fujiwara lines still existed: Sesonji , Muromachi (Kobata) and Yabu .

The names of the individual lines were mostly toponyms of the family residence or related to the family temples ( bodaiji ). About 30% of today's Japanese can call themselves descendants of the Fujiwara.

Until the marriage of Crown Prince Hirohito (posthumously Shōwa -Tennō) with Princess Kuni Nagako (Kuninomiya Nagako Nyoō) in January 1924, the main wives of the emperors and crown princes were always chosen from one of the five Sekke Fujiwara. Imperial princesses were also often married to Fujiwara for at least a millennium. This extends to Emperor Shōwa's third daughter, the late Princess Takanomiya (Kazoku), and Prince Mikasa's older daughter, the former Princess Yasuko, who married into the Takatsukasa and Konoe families.

Fujiwara regents

The incumbents and their reigns are listed in List of Japanese Regents .

family members

See also

source

  1. ↑ Herbert Plutschow: Japan's Name Culture. The Significance of Names in a Religious, Political and Social Context. Japan Library, Folkestone 1995, ISBN 1-873410-42-5 , p. 97.

Web links

Commons : Fujiwara  - collection of images, videos and audio files