Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/165

 ascends, their title to divine origin has received the assent of all generations of Japanese, and the links that connect their pedigrees with the present prosaic era become visible in the facts that a branch of the Nakatomi changed their name to Fujiwara, in the seventh century, an epoch at which administrative functions began to interest them more than sacerdotal; that they were subsequently separated into the Five Governing Families (Go-Sekke); that up to the centralisation of the administration in 1868, the nominal prime-minister of every sovereign after he came of age, and the regent during his minority, belonged to the Fujiwara; that the Mononobe family has eight representatives among the present nobility, one of them being the celebrated Count Katsu, who played such a conspicuous part in the Restoration of 1867; and that no hereditary Shintō official (Kannushi) of this Meiji era entertains or admits any doubt of his ancestors' consanguinity with some deity, great or small. Of such materials is the Japanese nobility of to-day composed, for from some Kwobetsu or Shimbetsu family all the holders of hereditary titles in modern times can trace their descent.

At the other end of the scale stood the Bambetsu, including the commoner (heimin) and the serf (semmin), who were immeasurably removed from the patrician and excluded from association with him in this life or beyond the grave. Shintō