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The kuge was a Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese aristocratic class
Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchy distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Usually most societies have some notion of social class , but concretely defined social classes are not found in every known type of human societies....
 that dominated the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto
Kyoto

Sorry, no overview for this topic
 until the rise of the Shogunate in the 12th century at which point it was eclipsed by the daimyo
Daimyo

The were powerful territorial lords who ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. The term derives from a shortening of the title , which literally means "great named land" and originally simply referred to the owner of a large estate....
. The kuge still provided a weak court around the Emperor
Emperor of Japan

The of Japan is the symbol of the state and of the unity of the Japanese people. He is the head of the Imperial House of Japan. Under Japan's present constitution, the Emperor is the "symbol of the state and the unity of the people," and is a ceremonial figurehead in a constitutional monarchy ....
 right up until the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure....
.

The word means literally "public house" or "public family" and originally described the Emperor and his court. The meaning of the word changed over time to designate bureaucrat
Bureaucrat

A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government....
s at the court.






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The kuge was a Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese aristocratic class
Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchy distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Usually most societies have some notion of social class , but concretely defined social classes are not found in every known type of human societies....
 that dominated the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto
Kyoto

Sorry, no overview for this topic
 until the rise of the Shogunate in the 12th century at which point it was eclipsed by the daimyo
Daimyo

The were powerful territorial lords who ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. The term derives from a shortening of the title , which literally means "great named land" and originally simply referred to the owner of a large estate....
. The kuge still provided a weak court around the Emperor
Emperor of Japan

The of Japan is the symbol of the state and of the unity of the Japanese people. He is the head of the Imperial House of Japan. Under Japan's present constitution, the Emperor is the "symbol of the state and the unity of the people," and is a ceremonial figurehead in a constitutional monarchy ....
 right up until the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure....
.

The word means literally "public house" or "public family" and originally described the Emperor and his court. The meaning of the word changed over time to designate bureaucrat
Bureaucrat

A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government....
s at the court. Later, in the Kamakura period
Kamakura period

The is a period of History of Japan that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....
 (1185-1333), kuge became an antonym to buke (warriors' house), that is, samurai who swore loyalty to the Shogunate. At this point, kuge began to be used to describe those who worked in the Court; both aristocratic noblemen and commoners.

Two classes formed the kuge: the dojo noblemen who sat on the floor with the Emperor and the jige who where unable to sit with the Emperor. Although kuge included those two classes, mainly this word described the dojo, the noblemen.

The highest offices at the court were called kugyo
Kugyo

is a collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre-Meiji period eras. In general, this elite group included only three to four men at a time....
 and eligibility was limited to members of dojo kuge. During Edo period there were about 130 families of dojo kuge. The most prominent members of the kuge became sessho or kampaku, acting as imperial regent
Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present or debilitated....
s. These daijo-kan offices were restricted to members of the Fujiwara family
Fujiwara family

The Fujiwara clan , descending from the Nakatomi clan, was a powerful family of regents in Japan that monopolized the regent positions, Sessho and Kampaku....
.

Though they lost the most of their political power, they sustained the court culture and maintained a cultural influence. In particular, after the Sengoku period they lost most of their financial basis and were no longer in a position to act as patrons of culture. But they passed on their knowledge as masters of particular fields such as writing waka
Waka (poetry)

Waka or Yamato uta is a classical Japanese poetry form and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. The term was coined during the Heian period, and was used to distinguish Japanese-language poetry from Kanshi , Chinese-language poetry written by Japanese poets, and later from renga....
 and playing instruments like the biwa
Biwa

The biwa is a Japanese short-necked fretted lute, and a close variant of the Chinese pipa. The biwa is the chosen instrument of Benzaiten, goddess of music, eloquence, poetry, and education in Japanese Buddhism....
, and had disciples among the daimyo
Daimyo

The were powerful territorial lords who ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. The term derives from a shortening of the title , which literally means "great named land" and originally simply referred to the owner of a large estate....
 and sometimes rich commoners. As masters of a certain field, kuge gave their disciples many licences certifying that the disciples had learned a certain field and allowed them to do practice in public or sometimes to teach others. Disciples were expected to pay their master a fee for each issued license. During the Edo period, this was an important source of income for the kuge.

In 1869 during the Meiji restoration
Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure....
 the kuge merged with the daimyo to form a single aristocratic group, the kazoku
Kazoku

The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan that existed between 1869 and 1947....
.

Others associated with the kuge included Buddhist priests, Kyoto cultural patrons, geisha
Geisha

, or are traditional, female Japanese entertainers, whose skills include performing various Japanese arts, such as classical music and dance....
, and actor
Actor

An actor or actress is a person who acting in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio programming in that capacity....
s.

Classification

In the 12th century among dojo conventional differences were established separating the kuge into groups according to their office at court. These determined the highest office to which they could be appointed. The groupings were:
  • Sekke: could be appointed to sessho and kampaku: Highest class of kuge. Only five families belonged to this class, all derived from Fujiwara no Michinaga
    Fujiwara no Michinaga

    Fujiwara no Michinaga represents the highpoint of the Fujiwara regents' control over the government of Japan.Michinaga exerted de facto reign over Japan in the early 11th century....
    .
  • Seigake: could be appointed daijin (minister), including daijo-daijin, the highest of the four daijin of the court. They derived from the Fujiwara clan or Minamoto clan
    Minamoto clan

    was one of the honorary surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan of the Heian Period on those of their sons and grandsons who were not considered eligible for the throne....
    , descendants of the emperors.
  • Daijinke: could be appointed naidaijin, if this office became vacant. In reality, the highest office they could achieve was dainagon
    Dainagon

    , often translated as "Great Councillor," was a government post of the Japanese ritsuryo governmental system, which was in place for much of the classical and feudal periods....
    .
  • Urinke: military class; could be appointed dainagon -- rarely to naidaijin.
  • Meika: civilian class; could be appointed dainagon. Sometimes referred to as Meike.
  • Hanka: the lowest class among the dojo, a class created in the late Sengoku period
    Sengoku period

    The was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict in Japan that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century....
    . They could only be appointed to lower ranks than sangi or chunagon
    Chunagon

    Chunagon , often translated as Councillor, was a position in the daijo-kan, or early feudal Japanese government. Chunagon came between the dainagon and shonagon in authority and responsibility....
    . Sometimes referred to as Hanke.


Most of highest classed kuge belonged to the Fujiwara clan and Minamoto clan
Minamoto clan

was one of the honorary surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan of the Heian Period on those of their sons and grandsons who were not considered eligible for the throne....
. But there were still other clans like the Sugawara clan, the Kiyohara clan and the Oe clan.

See also

  • List of Kuge families
    List of Kuge families

    The following list are the court noble families of Japan. The kuge along with the daimyo made up the nobility of post-Meiji Restoration Japan until the kazoku was abolished shortly after World War II....