#The Kuge (公家) and the Buke (武家)

Contents

Fiction-Only + RP Guide. This document presents the kuge/buke distinction in prose and presents the entry point for PC builds. Detailed rules are deferred to the Chapter 5 mechanics.

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#Opening Fragment — The Brush and the Bow

The kuge took up the brush, the buke took up the bow. Faced with the same incident, one side corrected a title, the other corrected a saddle.

"A yoma has entered the eastern mansion," the messenger reported.

The kuge official first looked for paper. "To whom does the ownership of that mansion belong? Is this a matter to report first to the court, or first to the Fujiwara house?"

The warrior, vexed, checked his bowstring. "People are dying. I will go first."

The official raised his head. "You may go. But if it is not settled by whose command you went, then after you return, your merit may become a crime."

The warrior paused for a moment. The brush and the bow scorned each other, yet in the Heian night both were needed. Wait for the document and people die; ignore the document and order dies. Between these the tension of kuge and buke begins.

#Scent — A Society of Two Axes

Heian turned on two axes. One axis was the kuge (公家) — the nobility of the court. The other axis was the buke (武家) — the warrior houses. Over four hundred years, the weight of the two axes shifted endlessly. At first the kuge were at the pinnacle and the buke at the frontier. By the end, the buke entered the capital, and the kuge withdrew behind them.

The five figures of this volume are scattered across the two axes. Michizane, Shikibu, and Seimei are close to the kuge; Yorimitsu and Kiyomori belong to the buke. Looking at where those five stand, the shape of Heian society becomes visible.

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#The Kuge — People of the Brush and the Shaku

The nobility of the court. The imperial house, the Fujiwara house, and other distinguished families. The duties of the kuge are court ceremony, document administration, diplomacy, and palace ritual. In place of weapons, they hold the brush, the shaku (笏), and court robes.

#The Daily Life of the Kuge

• Waka (和歌) — a fixed-form poem of 31 sounds. The core of socializing. A single waka decides a person's reputation.
• Kangen (管弦) — court music. Biwa, yokobue, and sho.
• Listening to monogatari (物語) — a lady-in-waiting reads and a noble listens.
• Incense (香) discernment — smelling several incenses and guessing their names.
• Divination — entrusted to the onmyoji, but hearing the result is the prerogative of the kuge.

#Five Distinguished Houses (This Volume's Grouping)

This volume groups five representative houses of the Heian kuge as follows — though this is a grouping for this volume's explanation, not a fixed Canon classification.

The Minamoto and the Taira are houses in which the imperial family (descendants of the Emperor) descended into the rank of subject (shinseki) — that is, they set out as kuge but gradually changed into buke. "The branching from kuge to buke" is the key to understanding the late Heian period.

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#The Buke — People of the Bow and the Sword

The warrior houses. They take up the bow and the sword. Yet throughout Heian their status was lower than the kuge.

#The Position of the Buke

• The escort class of the kuge — "samurai (侍)" = "one who serves." Originally a word referring to the escort warriors of a kuge mansion.
• Domain managers — out in the frontiers beyond the capital, they guarded land by private armed force.
• Dependent on the kuge — the title to domains, promotion, and official rank were all in the hands of the kuge.

#The Minamoto and the Taira

The representatives of the two buke. Both are descendants of the imperial family who branched from kuge to buke.

• Minamoto (Genji) — the line of Emperor Seiwa is the main lineage. Warriors of the eastern provinces. The Kawachi Genji line running Yorinobu → Yoriyoshi → Yoshiie and onward to Yoritomo.
• Taira (Heishi) — the line of Emperor Kanmu into the Ise Taira. Warriors of the western provinces. Masakado → Kiyomori → Shigemori.

In the 11th–12th centuries the buke rose to the center of politics. In the Hogen Rebellion (1156) the buke decided the dispute of the imperial house and the Fujiwara; in the Heiji Rebellion (1159) the Minamoto lost to the Taira; and after the Heiji Rebellion Kiyomori became the first of the buke to rise to Daijo-daijin (太政大臣) — the incident in which a buke rose directly to a kuge seat.

#The Word "Samurai"

The character "侍" (samurai) of the kanji spelling means "to serve at one's side." The Heian samurai was originally one who escorted at the side of the kuge. There was as yet no ethic called Bushido (武士道). The aesthetics of yabusame (流鏑馬) and single combat (一騎打ち) filled that place — for detailed rules, see fc04-05-01-samurai.md.

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#The Relationship of the Two — The Asymmetry of Authority and Force

This asymmetry was maintained throughout Heian until Kiyomori broke it. The moment a buke rose directly to a kuge seat (Daijo-daijin) was the end of the balance, and from that end to the end of Heian was little more than a single generation.

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#Episodes to Cover

#Fujiwara no Michinaga (966~1027)

The pinnacle of power. "Is this world not my own, like the full moon, lacking in nothing" — the waka he composed is the self-awareness of Heian at its zenith. At the same time, darkness often lodged in his bedchamber, and Seimei entered to purify it.

#Minamoto no Yoshiie (1039~1106)

A hero of the buke called by the byname "Hachiman Taro (八幡太郎)." He pacified Tohoku in the Former 9 Years' War and the Latter 3 Years' War. Yet the treatment from the kuge was meager, and the official rank he received was paltry compared to his military merit. This is the point at which the anger of the buke began to accumulate.

#Taira no Masakado (?~940)

In the mid 10th century, he proclaimed himself "New Emperor (新皇)" in the eastern provinces and raised a banner of revolt against the court. He was put down in under a year, but he was the first to show the possibility that a buke could defy the court. After his death, his head was cut off and exposed in Kyoto, and a legend arose that the head flew off toward the eastern provinces — this is one archetype of Heian onryo culture.

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#Game Application — The Entry Point for PC Builds

The PCs of this volume's Heian campaign may belong to either of the two axes.

#Kuge PC

Implemented as a variant of an existing class. Not a new class — the scholar, onmyoji, feng shui master, performer, and arahitogami of co are operated to fit the Heian court. For the detailed guide, see fc04-05-02-kuge-class.md.

#Buke PC

The samurai class of co is operated as a Heian variant. Not swordsmanship but yabusame (mounted archery) is the main vocation. For detailed rules, see fc04-05-01-samurai.md.

#Squad Composition

The charm of the Heian campaign is the collaboration of the two axes. The kuge PC takes on information, connections, and negotiation; the buke PC takes on combat, escort, and execution. A composition of 1~2 kuge PC + 1~2 buke PC + 1 onmyoji PC is ideal — the Shuten-doji subjugation party (Yorimitsu + the 4 Shitenno) was largely of this form.

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#References

#co — Classes

• co-04-character/co-04-07-classes/co-04-07-01-samurai.md — samurai
• co-04-character/co-04-07-classes/co-04-07-09-scholar.md — scholar (the core of the kuge PC)

#Within fc04

• fc04-01-01-era.md — historical background
• fc04-01-03-warrior-dawn.md — the dawn of the warrior
• fc04-03-05-kiyomori.md — the buke that rose to a kuge seat
• fc04-05-01-samurai.md — the buke variant rules
• fc04-05-02-kuge-class.md — the Kuge PC Guide
• fc04-05-05-class-guide.md — the 33-class guide

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The brush was weaker than the sword, but it was the brush that decided whom the sword would face.