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232 government had been entirely remodelled on the Chinese centralis ed bureaucratic plan, with a regular system of ministers responsible to the sovereign, who, as "Son of Heaven," was theoretically absolute. In practice this absolutism lasted but a short time, because the entourage and mode of life of the Mikados were not such as to make of them able rulers. They passed their time surrounded only by women and priests, oscillating between indolence and debauchery, between poetastering and gorgeous temple services. This was the brilliant age of Japanese classical literature, which lived and moved and had its being in the atmosphere of an effeminate Court. The Fujiwara family engrossed the power of the state during this early epoch (A.D. 670—1050). While their sons held all the great posts of government, their daughters were married to puppet emperors.

The next change resulted from the impatience of the always manly and warlike provincial gentry at the sight of this sort of petticoat government. The great families of Taira and Minamoto arose, and struggled for and alternately held the reins of power during the second half of the eleventh and the whole of the twelfth century. Japan was now converted into a camp; her institutions were feudalised. The real master of the empire was he who, strongest with his sword and bow, and heading the most numerous host, could partition out the land among the chief barons, his retainers. By the final overthrow of the Taira family at the seafight of Dan-no-ura in A.D. 1185, Yoritomo, the chief of the Minamotos, rose to supreme power, and obtained from the Court at Kyōto the title of Shōgun, literally "Generalissimo," which had till then been applied in its proper meaning to those generals who were sent from time to time to subdue the Ainos or rebellious provincials, but which thenceforth took to itself a special sense, somewhat as the word Imperator (also meaning originally "general") did in Rome. The coincidence is striking. So is the contrast. For, as Imperial Rome never ceased to be theoretically a republic, Japan contrariwise, though practically and indeed avowedly ruled by the Shōguns from A.D. 1190 to 1867, always