Rights over land in this age lie in layers, and the great houses of the capital hold the upper layers.
The Konoe and the Matsudono (both from Motozane's line) and the Kujō (Kanezane's) are the regent houses; the Ichijō in this record are the family of Yoshiyasu and Takayoshi, Yoritomo's in-laws, not the later regent house of that name (which does not yet exist); the Koga are Michichika's house. These families hold the offices of state in rotation, the proprietorship (honke or ryōke) of estates across the provinces, and the abbacies of the great monasteries for their younger sons. Below them, the clerical houses (Nakahara, Ōe, Miyoshi) supply the secretaries of both the court and Kamakura: Ōe no Hiromoto and Nakahara Chikayoshi sit on the Council of Thirteen at Kamakura.
Who he is
- Name
- Konoe Motomichi; Matsudono Motofusa [not yet checked against the source]; Kujō Kanezane; Ichijō Takayoshi; the Koga of Michichika
- Title
- Heads of the regent houses and the great families of the court (kenmon)
- Family
- Fujiwara regent line (Konoe, Matsudono, Kujō); Murakami Genji (Koga); Fujiwara Hokke (Ichijō); clerical houses (Nakahara, Ōe, Miyoshi)
- Confidence
- low
Mostly recollection; the Konoe and Kujō items are checked on English Wikipedia.
Overlord
Go-Toba
What it holds
- Estates as proprietors across every province (Konoe: Shimazu-no-shō)
- Offices in rotation; the abbacies of Kōfukuji, Enryakuji, Ninnaji and Daigoji for sons of the houses
How things stand that morning
The Konoe have the regency; the Kujō are out of favour; the Koga (Michichika) govern; the Ichijō stand with Kamakura. The Takatsukasa, Nijō and the later Ichijō regent houses do not yet exist. Saionji Kintsune (b. 1171) is rising but his role as Kamakura's channel (Kantō mōshitsugi) belongs to 1219 and after [not yet checked against the source].
Wealth
Estate revenues; no figures used.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Recollection of the standard political histories; flagged low confidence.
Primary sources for Kyoto court
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
- Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
- Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Diary of the Inokuma Regent: the diary of Konoe Iezane, Konoe Iezane (近衛家実) (1197 to 1218, as a daily diary). The diary of the regent's heir, aged twenty-one in 1200 and already a senior courtier under his father Konoe Motomichi, who was regent (sessho) for the child emperor Tsuchimikado. Read online
- Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
- Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
- Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Korea and Japan.
Sources and studies
- OMNIA kja regional brief (KJA_BRIEF.md), the campaign's dated traps and realm table
- Jeffrey Mass, Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan (background reading, not re-read in this session)
- Cambridge History of Japan vol. 3, Medieval Japan (background reading, not re-read in this session)
- Konoe Motomichi, English Wikipedia
- Fujiwara no Kanezane, English Wikipedia
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.