Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/94

Rh "Western" according to the position of their birthplaces with regard to Omi. Hence arose the Eastern and Western camps into which wrestlers are to-day divided. In Seirin's time the men of the East wore a hollyhock flower in the hair for distinguishing badge, and the men of the West employed a convolvulus in the same way. Thus it came about that the term "flower path" (hana-michi) was applied to the place where these athletes made their entries and exits; a term subsequently used to designate the approach to all stages for mimetic dances or dramatic performances. The holding of the ring against all comers was not the only form of contest in that era. The men of the East were regularly paired against the men of the West, match lists being compiled, and the office of umpire (giyoji) being conferred on Seirin and his descendants for all time. Seirin's family discharged the function, often only nominal, for fourteen generations, until the year 1183, when, the last representative dying childless, the Emperor Gotoba (1190) conferred the post on Yoshida Iyenaga, a squire of the celebrated Minamoto chieftain, Kiso Yoshinaka. Yoshida's family thenceforth became the Tsukasa-ke (directing house) of all wrestlers in the Empire, its representative in each generation taking the name "Oikade" (conferred on Yoshida by the sovereign), and holding the second grade of the fifth official rank, which is the rank of a prefectural governor in modern