Roundaboutness is, however, closely connected with “yumei-mujitsu,” the other characteristic mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.  This, for the sake of simplicity, I venture to call “nominality.”  Japanese history is a prolonged illustration of this characteristic.  For over a thousand years “yumei-mujitsu” has been a leading feature in governmental life.  Although the Emperor has ostensibly been seated on the throne, clothed with absolute power, still he has often reigned only in name.[AK] Even so early as 130 A.D., the two families of Oomi and Omuraji began to exercise despotic authority in the central government, and the feudal system, as thus early established, continued with but few breaks to the middle of the present century.  There were also the great families which could alone furnish wives to the Imperial line.  These early took possession of the person of the Emperor, and the fathers of the wives often exercised Imperial power.  The country was frequently and long disturbed by intense civil wars between these rival families.  In turn the Fujiwaras, the Minamotos, and the Tairas held the leading place in the control of the Emperor; they determined the succession and secured frequent abdication in favor of their infant sons, but within these families, in turn, there appeared the influence of the “yumei-mujitsu” characteristic.  Lesser men, the retainers of these families, manipulated the family leaders, who were often merely figureheads of the contending families and clans.  Emperors were made and unmade at the will of these men behind the scenes, most of whom are quite unknown to fame.  The creation of infant Emperors, allowed to bear the Imperial name in their infancy and youth, but compelled to abdicate on reaching manhood, was a common device for maintaining nominal Imperialism with actual impotence.

When military clans began to monopolize Imperial power, the people distinctly recognized the nature of their methods and gave it the name of “Bakufu” or “curtain government,” a roundabout expression for military government.  There has been a succession of these “curtain governments,” the last and most successful being that of the Tokugawa, whose fall in 1867-68 brought the entire system to an end and placed the true Emperor on the throne.

But this “yumei-mujitsu” characteristic of Japanese life has been by no means limited to the national government.  Every daimyate was more or less blighted by it; the daimyo, or “Great Name,” was in too many cases but a puppet in the hands of his “kerai,” or family retainers.  These men, who were entirely out of sight, were, in very many cases, the real holders of the power which was supposed to be exercised by the daimyo.  The lord was often a “great name” and nothing more.  That this state of affairs was always attended with evil results is by no means the contention of these pages.  Not infrequently the people were saved by it from the incompetence and ignorance and