KYOTO -- The Reizei family of Kyoto has transmitted the style of waka poems since Japan's medieval age. Not only the Reizei family but also most of the other aristocratic families that served the Imperial court -- called "kuge" in Japanese -- have since then transmitted skills of traditional arts, arts of gracious etiquette and academic affairs as their hereditary family businesses.
The kuge families served the Imperial court with such hereditary family businesses, because the establishment of administrations of samurai warlords deprived them of political and military powers.
The Reizei family was in charge of waka poems, the Asukai family had kemari (a traditional ball game in which players kick a ball to keep it in the air as long as possible), and the Takakura family had emondo -- which teaches noble people how to select and wear formal dress in attending court ceremonies.
The Anenokoji family and many other kuge families shared kagura, a traditional dancing performance originally dedicated to Shinto deities.
The Shijo family was in charge of hocho-do, a traditional cooking method for noble people. It covers such skills as filleting carp with special techniques using kitchen knives.
Members of the Imperial family, which reigned over the kuge families, have also been fond of academic studies, waka poems and traditions in various fields -- called yusoku-kojitsu in Japanese.
It is because of this tradition that emperors since the end of World War II have acquired high levels of academic knowledge and skills that are close to those of experts in respective fields, though the postwar emperors are separated from politics and have become the symbol of the nation.
Though this story has taken a detour, the kuge families' businesses continued to exist until the end of the Edo period (1603-1867). In 1869, Emperor Meiji moved from Kyoto to Tokyo, where the Meiji government decided to abolish the kuge families' hereditary jobs. In exchange for that, the Meiji government paid compensation to each of the kuge families.
Despite the change, the Reizei family has preserved the tradition of waka poems. However, as the Imperial court ceased to exist in Kyoto, the family has taught waka poems to ordinary citizens, instead of Imperial family or kuge family members.
How about the Asukai family's tradition of kemari? The late Masamichi Asukai was a direct descendant of the family and a professor of Kyoto University, which I attended, and an expert on Japan's modern history.
From him, I learned about Sakae Osugi, an anarchist in the Meiji era (1868-1912), but never kemari.
As an extra episode, Shiramine Jingu shrine near the Kyoto Imperial Palace was formerly the Asukai family's second house. It enshrines a guardian deity of mari balls.
In recent years, the deity has become a guardian for modern ball sports. At the shrine, balls for soccer, baseball and other sports have been dedicated. Among them is a ball that was used by a Japanese national team in one of the Olympics.
Is it possible for foreigners to understand that it is an expression of the Japanese sense of religion when they see the large number of balls placed in the shrine's hall?
Let's get back to what I was saying. Though the Takakura family lost its hereditary business of emondo, it established the Institute of Court Culture in Tokyo, which stores and manages court garb passed down in the family and old documents about rules on how to wear such traditional formal wear.
Because the Takakura family has continued its activities for preserving the tradition, members of the family and the Yamashina family, which was taught emondo by the Takakura family, are to this day invited to Tokyo to help Imperial family members, including the emperor and empress, when they must wear traditional costumes in Imperial ceremonies.
Unfortunately, the Yamashina family fell into a financial crisis in the Meiji era, and had the then Imperial Household Ministry purchase the family's old documents. The Yamashina family also sold the land of its house, which was next door to that of the Reizei family. Currently, the school buildings of Doshisha University, which bought the land plot, stand there.
The previous head of the family said that members of the Yamashina family once lived in Kobe as well. Today, members of the family are among the public in Kyoto.
I have introduced the movements after the 1868 Meiji Restoration surrounding four kuge families -- Reizei, Asukai, Takakura and Yamashina. But they were some of the few kuge families that remained in Kyoto.
According to Yoshinori Osakabe, an associate professor at Nihon University and the author of "Kyoto ni Nokotta Kugetachi: Kazoku no Kindai" (Kuge families who remained in Kyoto: Modern history of prewar aristocratic families), the number of such kuge families was 56.
Most of the other kuge families moved to Tokyo together with Emperor Meiji, and were given new jobs by the Meiji government, but these four families had no other choice but to search for jobs on their own.
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