was a

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese aristocratic kin group ('' uji''). Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)
"Nakatomi," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 39
retrieved 2013-5-5. The clan claims descent from Ame-no-Koyane.

History

The Nakatomi was an influential clan in

Classical Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when ...

. Along with the

Inbe clan Inbe clan (忌部氏; also spelled Imibe clan or Inbe clan) was a Japanese clan during the Yamato period. They claimed descent from Futodama. The Inbe clan originally had a religious function by preparing and taking care of offerings. According ...

, the Nakatomi were one of the two clans that oversaw certain important national rites, and one of many to claim descent from divine clan ancestors "only a degree less sublime than the imperial ancestors".Sansom, George (1958). ''A History of Japan to 1334'', pp. 35–36. It is said that soon after the beginning of Jimmu's reign, a Master of Ceremonies (''saishu'') was appointed; and this office was commonly held by a member of the Nakatomi clan after the 8th century.Brown, Delmer ''et al.'' (1979). ''Gukanshō,'' p. 249 n10. This was due to the hereditary nature of both governmental positions and clan roles – a clan's role might be to supply warriors, or, in the case of the Nakatomi, to conduct

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

rites and hold the associated positions. Though their material holdings were not the most extensive, their spiritual and ritual importance placed the Nakatomi and Imibe second only to the Imperial House during their heyday. One particularly important ritual which the head of the Nakatomi clan oversaw was the ''Ōharai'' purification rite, performed twice every year, in which the High Priest (of the Nakatomi clan) asked the ''

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

'' to cleanse the spirits of all of the people of their impurities.

Theories about their relationship with Takemikazuchi and the Ō clan

According to in his ''Jinja to kodai ōken saishi'' (1989), Takemikazuchi was originally a local god ('' kunitsukami'') revered by the ,(zasshi code 66951-07; kyōtsu zasshi code T10-66951-07-1000) and was a god of maritime travel. However, the Nakatomi clan also has roots in this region, and when they took over control of priestly duties from the Ō clan, they claimed Takemikazuchi as the Nakatomi clan's

ujigami An is a guardian ''kami'' of a particular place in the Shinto religion of Japan. The ''ujigami'' was prayed to for a number of reasons, including protection from sickness, success in endeavors, and good harvests. History The ''ujigami'' is ...

(clan deity). Ōwa goes on to theorize that the Ō clan was originally , but was usurped by the Nakatomi who were among the "lesser priesthood" (the latter claims descent from the ). The Nakatomi clan, essentially the priestly branch of the

Fujiwara clan The was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

, also placed the veneration of Takemikazuchi in the Kasuga-taisha in

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

. (The thunder god is one of several gods enshrined.) When the

Yamato kingship The was a tribal alliance centered on the Yamato Province, Yamato region (Nara Prefecture) from the 4th century to the 7th century, and ruled over the alliance of Nobility, noble families in the central and western parts of the Japanese archipe ...

expanded control into the easterly dominions, Kashima (

Kashima, Ibaraki is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 67,197 in 28,873 households and a population density of 634 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 31.5%. The total area of t ...

) became a crucial base. Yamato armies and generals often prayed to the Kashima and Katori deities for military success against the intransigents in the east. In these ways, Takemikazuchi became an important deity for the imperial dynasty.

Asuka period

As a result of the Nakatomis' ritual position and role in the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

, they were among the chief advocates of conservatism in the controversy over the introduction of

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

to Japan in the 6th century. However, by the time of

Nakatomi no Kamatari , also known as , was a Japanese politician and aristocrat who, together with Prince Naka no Ōe (later Emperor Tenji), carried out the Taika Reform. He was the founder of the Fujiwara clan, the most powerful aristocratic family in Japan durin ...

, in the early 7th century, the clan had switched sides, possibly as a result of their loyalty and close connection to the Imperial family; following

Prince Shōtoku , also known as or , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was the son of Emperor Yōmei and his consort, Princess Anahobe no Hashihito, who was also Yōmei's younger half ...

, likely the most famous advocate of Buddhism in all of Japanese history, and later Prince Naka no Ōe, the Nakatomi helped eliminate the

Soga clan The was one of the most powerful aristocratic kin groups Uji (clan), (''uji'') of the Asuka period of the early Japanese state—the Yamato period, Yamato polity—and played a major role in the spread of Buddhism in Japan. Through the 5th and ...

, powerful and very active supporters of Buddhism, and of the current administration of the time (see

Isshi Incident The was a successful plot by Nakatomi no Kamatari ( Fujiwara no Kamatari), Prince Naka no Ōe and others who conspired to eliminate the main branch of the Soga clan, beginning with the assassination of Soga no Iruka. It takes its name from th ...

). The clan soon came to be opposed by a number of other clans which vied for power and prestige at Court, and for influence over the Imperial succession. It is said however, that despite being overshadowed by others in terms of pure material wealth, the head of the Nakatomi clan was, in the mid-7th century, the most powerful man in Japan. Even into the 8th century, members of the Nakatomi clan maintained their important ritual position, becoming hereditary heads of the ''

Jingi-kan The , also known as the Department of Shinto Affairs, Department of Rites, Department of Worship, as well as Council of Divinities, was a Japanese Imperial bureaucracy established in the 8th century, as part of the reforms. It was first establish ...

'' (Department of Rites) established by the Code of Taihō in 701.

Nakatomi clan after Fujiwara no Kamatari

Arguably the most well-known clan leader,

was granted the name Fujiwara by

Emperor Tenji , known first as and later as until his accession, was the 38th emperor of Japan who reigned from 668 to 671. He was the son of Emperor Jomei and Empress Kōgyoku (Empress Saimei), and his children included Empress Jitō, Empress Genmei, an ...

as a reward for loyal service to the sovereign. Kamatari is honored as the founder of the

, which accumulated extraordinary powers and prestige in the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

(794–1185). Only the descendants of Fujiwara no Kamatari's eldest son Fuhito were allowed the name of Fujiwara. All the other members of the Nakatomi clan kept their original family name until Nakatomi no Imimaro was promoted to ''

chūnagon was a counselor of the second rank in the Imperial court of Japan. The role dates from the 7th century. The role was eliminated from the Imperial hierarchy in 701, but it was re-established in 705. This advisory position remained a part of the I ...

'' with the support of Fuhito. In 764, Kiyomaro, the son of Imimaro, sided with Empress Kōken during the

Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion The , also known as the Emi Rebellion, was a short-lived and unsuccessful Nara period military confrontation in Japan resulting from a power struggle between former Empress Kōken and the main political figure of the time, Fujiwara no Nakamaro fr ...

, and in 769, he was granted the name Ōnakatomi, thus establishing the Ōnakatomi clan. In the

, all three legitimate houses of Nakatomi clan were granted the name Ōnakatomi. Nakatomi no Ichishi was the last ''jingihaku'' (Head of the Department of Worship) of the Nakatomi clan, and his son Itohito later took the name of Ōnakatomi, thus being the last member of the Nakatomi clan.

Nakatomi family tree (大中臣系図)

Ikatsu ōmi-no-mikoto (雷大臣命) 　┃ O-o-obase-no-mikoto (大小橋命) 　┃ Nakatomi no Amahisa-no-kimi (中臣阿麻毘舎卿) 　┃ Nakatomi no Abiko (中臣阿毘古) 　┃ Nakatomi no Mahito (中臣真人) 　┃ Nakatomi no Kamako (中臣鎌子) 　┃ Nakatomi no Kuroda (中臣黒田) 　┃ Nakatomi no Tokiwa (中臣常磐) 　┃ Nakatomi no Katanoko (中臣可多能祜) 　┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Nakatomi no Mikeko (中臣御食子) Nakatomi no Kuniko (中臣国子) Nakatomi no Nukateko (中臣糠手子) 　┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃ 　┃ Second Branch of Nakatomi clan (中臣氏二門) Third Branch of Nakatomi clan (中臣氏三門) 　┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓

Fujiwara no Kamatari , also known as , was a Japanese politician and aristocrat who, together with Prince Naka no Ōe (later Emperor Tenji), carried out the Taika Reform. He was the founder of the Fujiwara clan, the most powerful aristocratic family in Japan durin ...

(藤原鎌足, 614–669) Nakatomi no Hisata (中臣久多) Nakatomi no Tareme (中臣垂目) 　┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃

(藤原氏) First Branch of Nakatomi clan (中臣氏一門)

References

{{Kasuga Faith Aristocracy of Classical Japan Japanese clans Buddhism in the Asuka period Nakatomi clan