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in the time of peace formed his Government, and who composed his General Staff in the time of war. These offices were made hereditary in the families of the different functionaries.
This state of things continued till the time of the forty-ninth Emperor, Konin (A.D. 770–781), who decreed that these peaceful and military offices should be distinctly separate. This distinction was made probably by the fact that on the whole the country enjoyed long years of peace, and the civil government developed into importance as the settled life of the people gave sufficient chance for development of agriculture and trades. Moreover, it is to be remembered that the later extended growth of the military class in Japan only dates its beginning from this time.
During the reign of the fifty-sixth Emperor, Sewa (859–876), the precedent—which became customary under most of the succeeding Emperors—was made for the first time of entrusting to one of the Ministers of State the exercise of sovereign power in the name of the Emperor. This Emperor was only nine years old when he occupied the throne, and one of his Ministers of State from the Fujiwara family, or Fujiwara-no-Yoshifusa, was appointed Regent. According to Chapter V. of the present Imperial House Law, the Regency shall be assumed only by some member of the Imperial Family when the Emperor is under age.
In the eighth year of his reign, 866 (8th year of Tekwan), the Emperor issued a decree announcing that the exercise of sovereign power should henceforth be delegated to Yoshifusa, and that his successors should enjoy the hereditary privilege of being appointed Regent when the Emperor was a minor, and of Minister President when he was of age; even in the latter case the exercise of the sovereign power was delegated to them. The granting of these powers was probably caused by the very important rôle played by the Fujiwara family both at the Court and in the Government. This was really the beginning of the Shogunate régime. Some of the succeeding Emperors attempted to abolish this anomalous condition, but it was not until 1069–1072 that it was successfully achieved by the seventy-first Emperor, Go-Sanjo. The exercise of the sovereign power was then completely restored to the Emperor, and so continued till the reign of the seventy-ninth Emperor, Rokujo (1166–1168), although during these periods (1069–1167) the Emperors retiring from the throne assumed the right of tutorage over their successors. The Fujiwara family still enjoyed, though really only nominally, the position of Regent or Minister President as their hereditary right.
The military powers hitherto possessed by the Ministers of State were from the time of the Emperor Konin (770–781)