Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/164

 fighting qualities commanded respect, the principal figures among these prior immigrants were admitted to the ranks of the Kwobetsu, while their lower orders were classed as Bambetsu. There appears to be little hope that these questions will be fully elucidated. As to the main lines of division, however, no doubt exists. The chiefs of the two great tribes, the Shimbetsu and the Kwobetsu, were priests as well as rulers. At the head of all stood the Mikado, — the Suberagi of ancient nomenclature, — who, originally within the precincts of the Palace only and afterwards by occasional visits to the principal shrine, performed religious rites on behalf of the nation's welfare. Immediately following him in order of dignity came the great families of Nakatomi, Mononobe, and Imbe representing the Kwobetsu. The heads of these houses possessed the right of disposing of the lives and properties of members, and the same right devolved upon the heads of the various branches into which the original households became divided as time elapsed. The Nakatomi traced their lineage to one of the principal councillors attached to the grandchild of the Sun Goddess when he descended to assume the rule of Japan; the Imbe to the deity that held the mirror and the go-hei before the cave on the immemorial occasion of the Sun Goddess' self-effacement; the Mononobe, to Susa-no-ō himself. Into whatever cloud-land of myth and marvel the line of these patriarchal families