Kuge

The kuge () was a aristocratic class Japan ease which dominated the Imperial Court of Kyōto until the advent of the shōgunat at the 12th century, from when it was eclipsed by the Daimyō . The kuge continued to form a Court restricted around the emperor until the Restauration Meiji.

History

In the beginning, the term kuge , then read kōke or ōyake and literally meaning “public house” or “public family”, indicated the house of the Empereur of Japan. After having named the emperor and his Court, it ends up being allotted to the whole of the noble and senior officials attending and working at the Court until the Restauration Meiji, by opposition with the Buke (, warlike families having sworn fidelity with the Shōgun ). After the establishment of the political power of the warriors, the word in general indicates the whole of the power and the administration of the imperial Court, which they are noble or Roturier s.

The kuge was composed of two classes: the dōjō (), made up of the noble which sat down on the ground with the emperor; and the jige (), gathering people who were not authorized to do it. Although the kuge is composed of these two classes, one often uses this term to only indicate the dōjō , i.e. the noble .

The high positions of the imperial Court, called Kugyō (), were reserved to the members of the dōjō kuge . During the Period Edo, there is had approximately 130 families of dōjō kuge . The most important members of the families of the kuge were called Sesshō or Kanpaku and acted as a imperial Régent S; these functions were reserved to the members of the Clan Fujiwara.

Although they lost the major part them political power, the members of the kuge cultivated the rites of the Court and preserved a notable cultural influence. For example, at the time of the Period Sengoku, they lost most of their financial goods and could not thus act any more like Mécène S. Nevertheless, they passed main in certain fields like the writing of Waka or the handling of instruments like the Biwa and was surrounded disciples chosen among the Daimyō and the rich person Roturier S. As a Master in a certain field, each kuge delivered with its disciples of the licenses certifying that they had actually followed his lesson and authorizing them to practice in public and even to teach this Article the disciples were to pay a tax with the kuge for each received license. During the Period Edo, this represented an important source of revenue for the nobles.

In 1869, during the Restoration Meiji, the kuge and the daimyō met to form only one aristocratic class , the Kazoku .

Classification

At the 12th century, the dōjō was divided into several groups determined by their function within the imperial Court. This new hierarchy conditioned the most station that each kuge could hope to occupy.

These groups were:

the sekke （） which could occupy the stations of Sesshō and of Kanpaku; only five families resulting from Fujiwara No Michinaga belonged to this class which was highest of the kuge
the seigake （） which could be named Daijin (, minister), in particular Dajō-daijin () which was most important of the four daijin that counted the imperial Court; these families went down from the clans Fujiwara or Minamoto, branches of the imperial line
the daijinke （） which could become Nai daijin () if this station became vacant, but in the facts the most station to which they had access was that of Dainagon ()
the urinke （） which constituted a military class and which could be promoted Dainagon or more rarely Nai daijin
the meika （） which constituted a civil class and which could be promoted Dainagon ; sometimes one speaks about meike
the hanka （） which formed the lowest class of the dōjō (which was created at the end of the Period Sengoku); they low had only access to the rows like Sangi or Chūnagon ; one speaks sometimes about hanke

The majority of large the kuge belonged to the clans Fujiwara or Minamoto. There were however other clans like the Sugarawa, the Kiyohara and the Oe. The majority of the kuge of the lower classes went down from former clans having lost their capacity at the beginning of the Period Heian.

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