Fujiwara no Umakai

Who They Were

Fujiwara no Umakai (藤原宇合, ふじわら の うまかい) was a courtier, general and politician of the Japanese court, born in 694 and dead on 3 September 737. He was the third son of Fujiwara no Fuhito, the statesman who made the Fujiwara clan the dominant force at court, and his mother was Soga no Shōshi. Through both parents he stood at the centre of the two families that had shaped Japanese politics since the seventh century.

Umakai is remembered above all as the founder of the Shikike (式家), the "Ceremonials" branch of the Fujiwara clan — one of the four lines into which Fuhito's descendants divided. He was a man of two careers at once: a military commander who led armies in the field, and a literary figure whose Chinese-style verse was admired by his contemporaries.

Life and Career

Umakai was born in 694, in the closing decades of the Asuka period (538–710), the era during which Japan's first permanent capital and its written law codes took shape. His father Fuhito served as the chief architect of court government under several sovereigns, and Umakai grew up inside that household of high office.

He entered court service as a young man and was sent to China in 716 as part of a diplomatic mission to the Tang court, an assignment given only to courtiers of proven ability. On his return he was appointed to senior military and administrative posts. In 724 he was made governor-general of the region guarding the north-eastern frontier, where he directed campaigns against the Emishi, the peoples of the north who resisted the court's expansion. He later held the office of Middle Counsellor (中納言, chūnagon), one of the highest positions in the Council of State.

Umakai died on 3 September 737. His death came in the middle of a devastating smallpox epidemic that swept the court and carried off several of his brothers in the same year, cutting short the generation that had seemed destined to consolidate Fujiwara power.

He married Kume no Wakame and Ishigami no Kunimori, and left a large family. Among his sons were Fujiwara no Hirotsugu, who would later lead a famous rebellion against the court, Fujiwara no Yoshitsugu, Fujiwara no Momokawa, Fujiwara no Kurajimaro and Fujiwara no Tamaro; among his daughters was Fujiwara no Sōko. His descendants formed the Shikike line, which produced some of the most powerful figures of the following century.

Why They Matter

Umakai's importance is twofold. First, he was a founder: the Shikike branch he established became one of the four great Fujiwara houses, and through his son Momokawa it later supplied empresses and regents to the throne. Without Umakai there is no Shikike, and the later history of Fujiwara dominance looks different.

Second, he represents the double character of the Nara court at its height. He was a general who campaigned on the northern frontier, a governor of a strategic province, a member of the Council of State, and a poet whose work was included in the court's Chinese-language anthologies. The same man who commanded troops against the Emishi also wrote verse in the continental style that the court had adopted as the mark of a cultivated official. That combination — sword and brush — was the ideal of the age, and Umakai embodied it.

His death in the epidemic of 737 also had political consequences. The loss of Umakai and his brothers in a single year removed the Fujiwara generation that had inherited Fuhito's authority, opening the way for rivals such as Tachibana no Moroe to dominate the court for a decade.

The Name in Japanese

The name is written 藤原宇合 and read ふじわら の うまかい (Fujiwara no Umakai).

藤 — read fuji here. It means "wisteria", the climbing vine. The Fujiwara took their name from the place where the family's ancestor was said to have been buried, and the wisteria became the clan's emblem.

原 — read wara here (the base reading is hara, "field" or "plain"). Together, 藤原 means "wisteria field". The reading shifts from hara to wara inside this name, a common sound change in Japanese compounds.

宇 — read u. It means "eaves", "roof" or "the sky", and by extension "the world" or "the universe". In names it carries a sense of breadth and dignity.

合 — read mai here (the base reading is au or ai, "to meet" or "to fit together"). It means "to join", "to match" or "to combine". In this name the two characters 宇合 together are read umakai, a reading that cannot be predicted from the individual characters — Japanese personal names of this period often used readings drawn from older native vocabulary rather than from the Chinese-derived sounds of the characters.

The particle の between 藤原 and 宇合 is the possessive marker of classical Japanese, linking the clan name to the personal name. This no was standard in aristocratic names of the period and is still used when referring to figures of the Nara and Heian courts.

Legacy

Umakai's most durable legacy is the Shikike, the Ceremonial House of the Fujiwara. His sons and grandsons carried the line into the highest offices of the state, and in the eighth century the Shikike rivalled the other Fujiwara branches for control of the court. His son Fujiwara no Momokawa became a decisive political figure, and the line remained a force in imperial politics for generations.

His descendants also produced one of the most dramatic episodes of Nara history: the rebellion of Fujiwara no Hirotsugu in 740, raised against the court of Tachibana no Moroe and crushed within a year. The rising is remembered as a measure of how far the sons of Umakai were willing to go to defend their family's position.

As a poet, Umakai's work survives in the court's Chinese-language anthologies, where he stands among the small group of Nara courtiers whose verse defined the literary culture of the age. He is buried in the record as a soldier, an administrator and a man of letters — a founder of one of Japan's great political houses and a representative of the Nara court at the height of its confidence.