The five Fujiwara families, Ichijō, Kujō, Nijō, Konoe and Takatsukasa, were the primary source of imperial brides from the 8th century to the 19th century, even more often than daughters of the imperial clan itself.

The acceptable source of imperial wives, brides for the emperor and crown prince, were even legislated into the Meiji-era imperial house laws ( 1889 ), which stipulated that daughters of Sekke ( the five main branches of the higher Fujiwara ) and daughters of the imperial clan itself were primarily acceptable brides.

The family's primary strategy for central influence was through the marrying of Fujiwara daughters to emperors.

It was originally the villa of Fujiwara Michinaga, ( 966-1028 ), who married his daughters to the sons of the Emperor.

Morozane had many sons and daughters, including Fujiwara no Moromichi and Fujiwara no Ietada.

( Originally, the Fujiwara were descended from relatively minor nobility, thus their kami is an unremarkable one in the Japanese myth world.

Fujiwara women were often Empresses, and concubines came from less exalted noble families.

Lesser members of the Fujiwara were court nobles, provincial governors and vice governors, members of the provincial aristocracy, and samurai.

The Fujiwara were the proverbial " power behind the throne " for centuries.

Because consorts of crown princes, younger sons, and emperors were generally Fujiwara women, the male heads of the Fujiwara house were often the father-in-law, brother-in-law, uncle, or maternal grandfather of the emperor.

The Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto were among the most prominent families supported by the new military class.

Nevertheless, the Fujiwara were not demoted by Emperor Daigo but actually became stronger during his reign.

Little authority was left for traditional officialdom, and government affairs were handled through the Fujiwara family's private administration.

Many shōen were not properly certified, and large landholders, like the Fujiwara, felt threatened with the loss of their lands.

Rather than being banished, the Fujiwara were mostly retained in their old positions of civil dictator and minister of the center while being bypassed in decision making.

In time, many of the Fujiwara were replaced, mostly by members of the rising Minamoto family.

In the end, the Fujiwara were destroyed, the old system of government supplanted, and the insei system left powerless as bushi took control of court affairs, marking a turning point in Japanese history.

Only forty years after Michinaga's death, his Fujiwara heirs were not able to prevent the ascension of Emperor Go-Sanjō ( reigned 1068 – 1073 ), the first emperor since Emperor Uda whose mother was not a Fujiwara.

Imperial princesses were often married to Fujiwara lords-throughout a millennium at least.

Other popular champions were Toshio Fujiwara and Mitsuo Shima.

Yoshifusa's brothers were Fujiwara no Nagayoshi, Fujiwara no Yoshisuke and Fujiwara no Yoshikado.

) To produce imperial children, heirs of the nation, with two-side descent from the two kamis, was regarded as desirable — or at least it suited powerful Fujiwara lords, who thus received preference in the imperial marriage market.

According to a record in the possession of the former Gozu-tennōsha Shrine 牛頭天王社 ( now the Hino Yasaka-jinja Shrine 日野八坂神社 ), Katsuta is listed, with full common name and formal name, as Shimazaki Isami Fujiwara ( no ) Yoshitake ( 島崎勇藤原義武 ), and thus, had the name Isami ( 勇 ) as of 1858, the document's date.

Because of Japanese societal mores which implied that a wrestler was a lifelong employee of a company and thus identified with it wherever he went, neither AJPW nor NJPW made an effort to acquire wrestlers trained in other promotions ; wrestlers from the major promotions who left, such as Genichiro Tenryu, Gran Hamada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Atsushi Onita, and Nobuhiko Takada had to start their own independent promotions in order to keep themselves in the limelight.

That same year, Regent Yoshitoki chose a distant Minamoto relative, Kujō Yoritsune, who was of the Kujō clan and thus a Fujiwara.

Ichijō married Michitaka's daughter Teishi ( Sadako ), thus continuing the close ties between the Imperial family and the Fujiwara.

The surname passed to the descendants of Fujiwara no Fuhito ( 659 – 720 ), the second son and heir of Kamatari, who was prominent at the court of several emperors and empresses during the early Nara period.

The family reached the peak of its power under Fujiwara no Michinaga ( 966-1027 ), a longtime kampaku who was the grandfather of three emperors, the father of six empresses or imperial consorts, and the grandfather of seven additional imperial consorts ; it is no exaggeration to say that it was Michinaga who ruled Japan during this period, not the titular Emperors.

Beginning from the 7th and 8th centuries, emperors primarily took women of the Fujiwara clan as their highest wives — the most probable mothers of future monarchs.

Many emperors actually had mothers from the Fujiwara family.

There have been six non-imperial families who have controlled Japanese emperors: the Soga ( 530s – 645 ), the Fujiwara ( 850s – 1070 ), the Taira ( for a relatively short period ), the Minamoto ( and Kamakura bakufu ) ( 1192 – 1333 ), the Ashikaga ( 1336 – 1565 ) and the Tokugawa ( 1603 – 1867 ).

The Fujiwara exercised tremendous power, especially during the period of regency governments in 10th and 11th centuries, having many emperors as practically puppet monarchs.

Toward the end of the ninth century, several emperors tried, but failed, to check the Fujiwara.

By the year 1000, Fujiwara no Michinaga was able to enthrone and dethrone emperors at will.

However, Fujiwara princes remained close advisors, regents and ministers to the emperors for centuries, even until the 20th century ( Prince Konoe and Morihiro Hosokawa ).

Until the marriage of the Crown Prince Hirohito ( Emperor Shōwa ) to Princess Nagako of Kuni ( posthumously Empress Kōjun ) in January 1924, the principal consorts of emperors and crown princes had always been recruited from one of the Sekke Fujiwara.

As it turned out, this tactic briefly allowed the emperors to wrestle power back from the Fujiwara clan, only to see it fall to the Taira warrior clan instead.

The emperors who withdrew to live in monasteries ( in ) continued to act in ways which were intended to counterbalance the influence of Fujiwara regents and the warrior class.

Toward the end of the ninth century, several emperors tried, but failed, to check the Fujiwara.

By the year 1000, Fujiwara no Michinaga was able to enthrone and dethrone emperors at will.

They were descended from the Fujiwara clan or Minamoto clan, descendants of the emperors.

Until the marriage of the Crown Prince Hirohito ( posthumously Emperor Shōwa ) to Princess Kuni Nagako ( posthumously Empress Kōjun ) in January 1924, the principal consorts of emperors and crown princes had always been recruited from one of the Sekke Fujiwara.

Partly based on that kami descent, tradition required that emperors may marry only from Fujiwara and imperial family itself-the view was that an empress must descend from gods, too.