Authority and Influence in Insei Politics
Inseicloistered or monastic rule as a system saw the shifting of power within existing institutions. Retired emperors, who'd previously had limited power following their abdication, were now able to hold continued political influence beyond the throne, in practices that lasted from Emperor Shirakawa's abdication in 1086 to the rise of the Kamakura shogunate of 1192, while the flow of power moved around their developing role within the political system.
Emperor Gosanjō’s reign (1068-1073) saw two notable changes that bolstered the development of the Insei system. First, his coronation saw the first recorded instance of a secret ritual, the coronation abhisekaritual for consecration involving the pouring of water, being performed as part of the process of succession. Second, the emperor implemented regulations that acted as the foundation behind the weakening of the Fujiwara regency (1). Taken together, these regulations and rituals both confirmed the standing and legitimacy of the current emperor, and redistributed power at court among competing factions.
The system of power that Insei comprised cannot just be characterised by the presence of the retired emperors; even though their presence was the most distinct feature of the Insei system, the retired emperor was not an unchallenged pillar of power (2). Instead, it was best represented as a network of intersecting power bases between:
- the court
- the imperial family
- abbots and monks at temples
- retired/cloistered emperors
Each point on the network held its own interests, and opposed each other in order to secure their positions; based on their proximity to the current emperor, the retired emperors happened to be positioned centrally in the system (3).
Regulations implemented by Emperor Gosanjō to curb the power of the Fujiwara clan also allowed for control of the imperial line to be shifted into the hands of the retired emperor. Spurred by this, the emergence of the retired emperor as a figure of notable power under Emperor Shirakawa (1073-1087) allowed for further shifts in the dynamics of power. In particular, movements away from the Fujiwara clan were made, allowing other branch clans like the Taira and the Minamoto to move through new positions at court (4). These movements between positions, both within and beyond the court, allowed for the intersection of authority across power bases, where each group was able to maintain political influence through the shifting of appointed positions.
1. Ryuichi Abe, The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 359-360.
2. Mikael Bauer, “Conflating Monastic and Imperial Lineage: The Retired Emperors’ Period Reformulated,” Monumenta Nipponica 67-2 (2012): 239.
3. Toshio Kuroda, “The Imperial Law and the Buddhist Law,” trans. Jacqueline Stone, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 23-3/4 (1996): 275-276. For more specific information on the intersection of these dual systems and the ways in which they were mutually dependent, see this article.
4. Mikael S. Adolphson, “Myōun and the Heike: Monastic Influence in Twelfth-Century Japan,” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 47-2 (2020): 192-193.