Key Points

- Noble clan that claims direct lineage from Ame-no-Koyane

Brief Bio 

The Fujiwara clan was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since ancient times and dominated the imperial court until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. They held the title of Ason.

The 8th century clan history Tōshi Kaden states the following at the biography of the clan's patriarch, Fujiwara no Kamatari (614–669): "Kamatari, the Inner Palace Minister who was also called ‘Chūrō,’ was a man of the Takechi district of Yamato Province. His forebears descended from Ame no Koyane no Mikoto; for generations they had administered the rites for Heaven and Earth, harmonizing the space between men and the gods. Therefore, it was ordered their clan was to be called Ōnakatomi"

The clan originated when the founder, Nakatomi no Kamatari (614–669) of the Nakatomi clan, was rewarded by Emperor Tenji with the honorific "Fujiwara" – after the wisteria field on Mount Tōno (in present-day Sakurai City) where Kamatari and the then-Prince Naka, whom he befriended in a game of kemari, conspired to eliminate the Soga clan – which evolved as a surname for Kamatari and his descendants. In time, Fujiwara became known as a clan name.

The Fujiwara dominated the Japanese politics of the Heian period (794–1185) through the monopoly of regent positions, Sesshō and Kampaku. The family's primary strategy for central influence was through the marrying of Fujiwara daughters to the Emperors. Through this, the Fujiwara would gain influence over the next emperor who would, according to family tradition of that time, be raised in the household of his mother's side and owe loyalty to his grandfather. As abdicated emperors took over power by exercising insei, cloistered rule, at the end of the 11th century, then followed by the rise of the warrior class, the Fujiwara gradually lost its control over mainstream politics.