Fujiwara Yorimichi

Fujiwara Yorimichi (born 992, Kyōto, Japan—died March 2, 1074, Uji, near Kyōto) was an imperial courtier who, as regent for three emperors, dominated the Japanese government for 52 years (1016–68). Yorimichi’s failure to maintain control over the countryside and to prevent quarrels among his kinsmen, however, furthered the decline of the powerful Fujiwara family.

The central government’s control over the countryside had deteriorated under Yorimichi’s father, Michinaga, but Yorimichi maintained a luxurious court style and ignored the unrest in the countryside. As a result, banditry and rebellions were rife, and brigands even penetrated the capital, plundering the imperial palaces. The great lords in the provinces no longer bothered to send taxes to the capital, and the imperial revenues became so depleted that palace buildings began to fall into disrepair. Although in retirement after 1068, Yorimichi was able to prevent the emperor Go-Sanjō (reigned 1068–72), the first emperor in over a century whose mother was not a Fujiwara, from supplanting the Fujiwara domination of imperial rule. After Yorimichi’s death, however, Go-Sanjō’s son, Shirakawa, was able to supplant the Fujiwara clan, and his successors excluded the Fujiwara from imperial power for nearly 100 years.

Yorimichi is credited with converting a former villa at Uji, near Kyōto, into the Byōdō Temple, which has some of the most outstanding examples of Japanese Buddhist art.