Five regent houses

The Five regent houses (Japanese摂 关 家, sekkanke ,五 摂 家, go- Sekke or摂 家, Sekke ) are five Japanese noble families ( Kuge ) of the Fujiwara clan who had the privilege of the imperial regent ( Sesshō and Kampaku ) at the imperial court in to provide Kyoto. They held the monopoly on this office from the 12th to the 19th century. Specifically, these five cottages are the Konoe, the Takatsukasa that Kujo, the Ichijō and the Nijo.

To ramified Fujiwara family were also other lines, but only the five Sekke were entitled to make the regent. Thus they were the most powerful families among the Kuge.

While the Japanese imperial family traces its origin to Amaterasu, the Fujiwara family 's own family legend comes after by another Kami, Ame -no- Koyane, from. Thus, these two are the only Japanese families who claim divine ancestors for themselves. This is the basis, the tradition that a Tennō (Kaiser ) may even take to the woman only one woman from the Fujiwara or imperial house - thus the Empress must also have divine ancestors.

In fact, all the emperors wives were from the Heian Period to the Edo period from the Fujiwara house, with one notable exception: Tokugawa Masako, daughter of the second Tokugawa shogun Hidetada, was the wife of Emperor Go - Mizunoo. This marriage was mainly used to bind the Imperial House and the newly established Tokugawa shogunate together.