원 근신(院近臣)과 귀족사회의 신분질서

In no Kinshin and the Class System of Aristocratic Society : With a Focus on Working􋹲level Bureaucrats

In no kinshin(院近臣)s, trusted vassals of the retired emperor(In 院), were important staff of the Insei(院政) system. Due to a subordinate position to the In, In no kinshins gained a bad reputation from the beginning, which has influenced on researchers until recently. Now it is insisted that In no kinshins’ disgraceful reputation resulted from high-ranking noblemen’s perspective, based on a stereotype of fixed social status. Motoki Yasuo argued that there are two types of In no kinshin, local administrators of major provinces and working-level bureaucrats, and the successful career of the latter ones could be highly regarded as a recruitment of talented people and a breakdown of class system. This article is to investigate the actual condition of working-level bureaucrats as In no kinshins. Their career can be determined as benkan(辨官) and kurodo(藏人). However, most of those were occupied by the Takafuji family of the Fujiwara clan. An intimate relationship with the In was prior to the capability of a person. In no kinshins got promotions to become court nobles, which was very irregular in the aspect of carrer track, considering their family’s rank. But as they secured the promotion track of their own, they settled themselves in the aristocratic order. Therefore, another class system appeared among the families of In no kinshin. Breaking class system and recruiting new talented persons could not be fully implemented, and those were the characteristics and the limits of In no kinshin.