t the beginning of this chapter.
This, for the sake of simplicity, I venture to call "nominality."
Japanese history is a prolonged illustration of this characteristic.
For over a thousand years "yumei-mujitsu" has been a leading feature
in governmental life. Although the Emperor has ostensibly been seated
on the throne, clothed with absolute power, still he has often reigned
only in name.[AK] Even so early as 130 A.D., the two families of Oomi
and Omuraji began to exercise despotic authority in the central
government, and the feudal system, as thus early established,
continued with but few breaks to the middle of the present century.
There were also the great families which could alone furnish wives to
the Imperial line. These early took possession of the person of the
Emperor, and the fathers of the wives often exercised Imperial power.
The country was frequently and long disturbed by intense civil wars
between these rival families. In turn the Fujiwaras, the Minamotos,
and the Tairas held the leading place in the control of the Emperor;
they determined the succession and secured frequent abdication in
favor of their infant sons, but within these families, in turn, there
appeared the influence of the "yumei-mujitsu" characteristic. Lesser
men, the retainers of these families, manipulated the family leaders,
who were often merely figureheads of the contending families and
clans. Emperors were made and unmade at the will of these men behind
the scenes, most of whom are quite unknown to fame. The creation of
infant Emperors, allowed to bear the Imperial name in their infancy
and youth, but compelled to abdicate on reaching manhood, was a common
device for maintaining nominal Imperialism with actual impotence.

When military clans began to monopolize Imperial power, the people
distinctly recognized the nature of their methods and gave it the name
of "Bakufu" or "curtain government," a roundabout expression for
military government. There has been a succession of these "curtain
governments," the last and most successful being that of the Tokugawa,
whose fall in 1867-68 brought the entire system to an end and placed
the true Emperor on the throne.

But this "yumei-mujitsu" characteristic of Japanese life has been by
no means limited to the national government. Every daimyate was more
or less blighted by it; the daimyo, or "Great Name," was in too many
cases but a puppet in the hands of his "kerai," or family retainers.
Thes