Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/191

 Kwammu's reign deserves this somewhat detailed notice because it marks the parting of the ways in mediæval Japan. His was the last really resolute struggle made during three and a half centuries to stem the influences that were plainly tending towards the substitution of bureaucracy for imperialism, the subordination of the Throne to the nobility.

Extraordinary importance attached to rank under the system introduced from China. Without attempting to explain the elaborate classification prescribed and strictly observed, it will suffice to say that the privilege of entrée to the "hall of purity and freshness" in the Palace was confined to officials of a certain grade and their sons, and could scarcely be obtained by any length of service or display of merit in a lower grade. Thus arose a broad division of the patrician order into "palatials" (denjo-bito) and "groundlings" (chige-bito), and so sternly was the distinction preserved that the latter stood to the former in a relation not much superior to serfdom. The power and perquisites attaching to the higher offices were proportionately great, and since it thus became worth while to purchase the patronage of the leading dignitaries at the cost of almost any service, there grew up a large body of fortune-seekers who occupied a position of vassalage towards their patrons. The Emperor nevertheless remained the nominal fountain