Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/184

 the reckoning commence with himself in the seventh century, the Fujiwara are sufficiently antique. There has been no break in the continuity of their line. They were the repositories of the administrative power for nearly five centuries. Their name is borne by ninety-five out of the hundred and forty-five families constituting the Japanese court nobility. Their daughters enjoyed through all ages, and still enjoy, a kind of prescriptive title to be the Emperors' consorts. Their sons established a hereditary right to fill the highest offices in the State. The history of Japan, during the twelve hundred years covered by her written annals, may truly be described as the history of four families, the Fujiwara, the Taira, the Minamoto, and the Tokugawa.

It is usual to adopt as lines of division the Nara epoch, the Heian (Kyōtō) epoch, the Kamakura epoch, and the Yedo epoch,—a classification based on the fact that each of these places was in turn the seat of administrative authority. But the course of political change is more intelligently indicated by taking for landmarks the successive usurpations of the four great families. The Fujiwara governed through the Emperor; the Taira, the Minamoto, and the Tokugawa may be said to have governed in spite of the Emperor. The Fujiwara based their power on matrimonial alliances with the Throne; the Taira, the Minamoto, and the Tokugawa based theirs on the