choice but to yield. Victory rested with the Fujiwara, but it
was purchased at the loss of some prestige.

*Titulary deity of the Fujiwara-uji.

CAMERA SOVEREIGNTY

Their obviously selfish device of seating a minor on the throne and
replacing him as soon as he reached years of discretion, had been
gradually invested by the Fujiwara with an element of spurious
altruism. They had suggested the principle that the tenure of
sovereign power should not be exercised exclusively. Go-Sanjo held,
however, that such a system not only impaired the Imperial authority
but also was unnatural. No father, he argued, could be content to
divest himself of all practical interest in the affairs of his
family, and to condemn the occupant of the throne to sit with folded
hands was to reduce him to the rank of a puppet. Therefore, even
though a sovereign abdicated, he should continue to take an active
part in the administration of State affairs. This was, in short,
Go-Sanjo's plan for rendering the regent a superfluity. He proposed
to substitute camera government (Insei) for control by a kwampaku.
But fate willed that he should not carry his project into practice.
He abdicated, owing to ill health, in 1073, and died the following
year.

SHIRAKAWA

Go-Sanjo was succeeded by his eldest son, Shirakawa. He had taken for
consort the daughter of Fujiwara Yorimichi. This lady, Kenko, had
been adopted into the family of Fujiwara Morozane, and it is recorded
that Yorimichi and Morozane shed tears of delight when they heard of
her selection by the Crown Prince--so greatly had the influence of
the Fujiwara declined. Shirakawa modelled himself on his father. He
personally administered affairs of State, displaying assiduity and
ability but not justice. Unlike his father he allowed himself to be
swayed by favour and affection, arbitrarily ignored time-honoured
rules, and was guilty of great extravagance in matters of religion.
But he carried into full effect the camera (or cloistered) system of
government, thereafter known as Insei. For, in 1086, after thirteen
years' reign, he resigned the sceptre to an eight-year-old boy,
Horikawa, his son by the chugu, Kenko. The untimely death of the
latter, for whom he entertained a strong affection, was the proximate
cause of Shirakawa's abdication, but there can be little doubt that
he had always contemplated such a step. He took the tonsure and the
religious title of Ho-o (pontiff), but in the Toba palace, h