Kuge

The Kuge (Japanese公家) or civil nobility was a Japanese aristocratic class from the uji, the top layer of the Yamato state, emerged.

History

In the course of aristocratization in the seventh century, the uji elite transformed to an aristocratic society that was active detached from their warlike qualities exclusively at the imperial court. This change is also related to the immigration of many Korean scribe who imported the Chinese court culture, writing and Buddhism, coherently with Yamato alliance with the lying on the Korean peninsula, Baekje Kingdom and the flight of the local elites to Japan.

The highest members of the Kuge were the imperial regent, Sesshō and Kampaku called whose posts had the five regent houses of the Fujiwara family of the subject.

They dominated the court in Heijo - kyō ( Nara period ) and Heian - kyō ( Heian period ) until the 12th century, however, the warrior class ( Buke ) strengthened and the Kuge drove back and eventually leading to the establishment of the first shogunate by Minamoto no Yoritomo and the beginning of the Kamakura period resulted. With the failed restoration of imperial power in the Kemmu restoration ( 1336 ) and the subsequent rise of the daimyo in the Sengoku period as a new aristocratic upper class, they finally lost in importance.

During the Meiji Restoration in 1869, they were merged with the daimyo in a single aristocratic group, the Kazoku.

Swell

• Sansom, George Bailey ( 1962). " Japan: A short cultural history. " New York: Appleton - Century- Crofts, Inc.
• Turnbull, Stephen ( 1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell & Co.
• John Whitney Hall, The Cambridge History of Japan

• Kuge ( needle)
• Japanese needle