Fujiwara no Yoshitsugu

Who They Were

Fujiwara no Yoshitsugu (藤原良継, ふじわら の よしつぐ) was a court noble and senior statesman of Japan's Nara period, the span of Japanese history from 710 to 794 when the imperial capital stood at Nara. He was born in 716 and died on 27 October 777. He held the office of Daijō-daijin (太政大臣, だいじょうだいじん), the highest-ranking ministerial post in the imperial government, and was the second son of Fujiwara no Umakai, the founder of the Shikike branch of the Fujiwara clan.

His original name was Sukunamaro (宿奈麻呂). He was the maternal grandfather of the emperors Heizei and Saga.

Life and Career

Yoshitsugu was born in 716, in the second year of the Reiki era (霊亀, れいき). His father, Fujiwara no Umakai, was a leading figure at court and the ancestor of the Shikike (式家), one of the four branches into which the Fujiwara clan divided. Yoshitsugu's mother was Ishigami no Kunimori. His wife was Abe no Komina.

He rose through the court hierarchy to become Daijō-daijin, the head of the Council of State and the most senior office a subject could hold. The post placed him at the summit of the Nara court, above the Minister of the Left and the Minister of the Right.

Yoshitsugu died on 27 October 777. His descendants carried the Shikike line forward: his children included Fujiwara no Otomuro, Fujiwara no Moroane, Fujiwara no Hitokazu, Fujiwara no Takemi and Nohara no Nagaeda, and several daughters who married into other branches of the Fujiwara. Through his daughter Fujiwara no Otomuro he became the maternal grandfather of the emperors Heizei and Saga.

Why They Matter

Yoshitsugu's importance lies in two things: the office he reached and the family he left behind. As Daijō-daijin he stood at the apex of the Nara-period state, and his career marks the Shikike branch of the Fujiwara as a force at the highest level of government.

The marriage alliances recorded among his children tied the Shikike to other Fujiwara lines and to the imperial family. The most consequential of these was the descent of the emperors Heizei and Saga from his daughter Otomuro, which placed Yoshitsugu's blood in the imperial line itself.

The Name in Japanese

The full name is written 藤原良継, read in kana as ふじわら の よしつぐ, and romanised as Fujiwara no Yoshitsugu. The particle の (no) links the clan name to the personal name; it is the possessive marker, so the name literally means "Yoshitsugu of the Fujiwara".

藤 — read here as fuji. It means "wisteria". The Fujiwara took their name from the wisteria, and the plant is the clan's emblem.

原 — read here as wara. It means "field" or "plain". Together, 藤原 (Fujiwara) means "wisteria field".

良 — read here as yoshi. It means "good" or "virtuous".

継 — read here as tsugu. It means "to succeed", "to inherit" or "to continue". The name Yoshitsugu therefore carries the sense of "good successor" or "virtuous heir".

The original name 宿奈麻呂 (Sukunamaro) is written with 麻呂 (maro), a suffix common in male names of the period, and 宿奈, read sukuna.

Legacy

Yoshitsugu's line, the Shikike, remained one of the recognised branches of the Fujiwara clan, and his descendants are recorded through his children and their marriages. His most lasting mark is genealogical: as the maternal grandfather of the emperors Heizei and Saga, he stands in the ancestry of the imperial house of the early Heian period. He died on 27 October 777, having held the highest ministerial office in the Nara state.