| Michinaga < |
\ \ Norimichi |
|
|
+----------------------------------------------------+
|
| / Tadamichi
| Tadazane <
| \ Yorinaga
\

It has already been related how the four heads of these families all
died in one year (736) during an epidemic of small-pox, but it may be
doubted whether this apparent calamity did not ultimately prove
fortunate, for had these men lived, they would have occupied
commanding positions during the scandalous reign of the Empress Koken
(afterwards Shotoku), and might have supported the ruinous disloyalty
of Nakamaro or the impetuous patriotism of Hirotsugu. However that
may be, the Fujiwara subsequently took the lead in contriving the
selection and enthronement of a monarch competent to stem the evil
tendency of the time, and when the story of the Fujiwara usurpations
comes to be written, we should always remember that it had a long
preface of loyal service, a preface extending to four generations.

THE FORTY-NINTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KONIN (A.D. 770-781)

When the Empress Shotoku died, no successor had been designated, and
it seemed not unlikely that the country would be thrown into a state
of civil war. The ablest among the princes of the blood was
Shirakabe, grandson of the Emperor Tenchi. He was in his sixty-second
year, had held the post of nagon, and unquestionably possessed
erudition and administrative competence. Fujiwara Momokawa warmly
espoused his cause, but for unrecorded reason Kibi no Makibi offered
opposition. Makibi being then minister of the Right and Momokawa only
a councillor, the former's views must have prevailed had not Momokawa
enlisted the aid of his brother, Yoshitsugu, and of his cousin,
Fujiwara Nagate, minister of the Left. By their united efforts Prince
Shirakabe was proclaimed and became the Emperor Konin, his youngest
son, Osabe, being appointed Prince Imperial.

Konin justified the zeal of his supporters, but his benevolent and
upright reign has been sullied by historical romanticists, who
represent him as party to an unnatural intrigue based on the alleged
licentiousness and shamelessness of his consort, Princess Inokami, a
lady then in her fifty-sixth y