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But the Buke could not realize their ambition without a bitter struggle among themselves, the longest and the fiercest war in Japanese history. The Minamoto and the Taira were both Kuge; both claimed imperial descent. In the early part of the contest the Taira carried all before them; and it seemed that no power could hinder them from exterminating the rival clan.
Ninety-five out of the total one hundred and fifty-five families of Kuge belonged to it, including the five families, Go-Sekke, from which alone the Emperor was by tradition allowed to choose his Empress. By the close of the seventh century most of the executive power had passed into its hands.
One of these, the Nakatomi, held, and still holds, the highest hereditary priesthood: the Nakatomi were, under the Emperor, the chiefs of the ancestral cult. All the great clans of early Japanese history such as the Fujiwara, the Taira, the Minamoto were Kuge; and most of the great regents and shoguns of later history were either Kuge or descendants of Kuge.
Thus Spencer's dictum was fully exemplified in Old Japan. As to Guizot's, those who read his presentation of a feudal community will remember that he had the higher nobility especially under consideration, so that his generalization applies to the daimio and the kugé.
"Hitherto the person whom we designate the sovereign has lived behind a screen, and, as if he were different from other human beings, has not been seen by more than a very limited number of Kuge; and as his heaven-conferred office of father to his people has been thereby unfulfilled, it is necessary that his office should be ascertained in accordance with this fundamental principle, and then the laws governing internal affairs may be established....
Above them were the military nobles, the daimio, and the court nobles, the kugé these higher, sybaritical nobles being fighters only in name. Below them were masses of the common people mechanics, tradesmen, and peasants whose life was devoted to arts of peace.
At the head of this vast aggregate was the Heavenly Sovereign, the Living God of the race, Priest-Emperor and Pontiff Supreme, representing the oldest dynasty in the world. Next to him stood the Kuge, or ancient nobility, descendants of emperors and of gods. There were, in the time of the Tokugawa, 155 families of this high nobility.
The Imperial Court, when confronted with any crisis, was constrained to borrow the aid of these magnates, and thus there came into existence the buke, or military houses, as distinguished from the kuge, or Court houses. We now arrive at a period of Japanese history in which the relations of the Fujiwara family to the Throne are so complicated as greatly to perplex even the most careful reader.
During the most critical moment of the forging of the sword, when the steel edge is being welded into the body of the iron blade, it is a custom which still obtains among old-fashioned armourers to put on the cap and robes worn by the Kugé, or nobles of the Mikado's court, and, closing the doors of the workshop, to labour in secrecy and freedom from interruption, the half gloom adding to the mystery of the operation.
Sword-smiths not infrequently rose to dignities far beyond their class: some had conferred upon them the high title of Kami, written with the same character used in the title of a daimyo, who was usually termed the Kami of his province or district. Naturally they enjoyed the patronage of the highest, emperors and Kuge.
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