>>26878751Historical fact shows that the possible degeneration of this characteristic and uniting means of benevolent and dedicated leadership is prominent in every great country that has ever graced the face of the Earth, with Japan being no exception. If we watch the rise and fall of the noble and aristocratic Fujiwara family in Japan during the Heian Jidai (Epoch) (from the end of the 8th to the middle of the 12th centuries), we find that their decline, at the close of this sprawling and once prosperous epoch, was due to the fact that, at the acme of their power and greatness, they had foolishly allowed their defense of tenure of power to any foreign or incompatible visitor or influence independent of all qualifications or means to exercise it, with the consequence that, after a number of generations, during which they admittedly produced many geniuses, they, and the villagers whom they had granted the culture of the nation by means of tone setting, demonstration, and legislature had ultimately ceased to possess any proper qualifications whatever.
In this way, when their privileges were challenged and eventually usurped by the rising military and sacerdotal clans of the outer provinces, they were as powerless to defend them as the former ancient patriarchal families had been to defend their own besotted ground, at the time when the Fujiwara themselves had been the warriors, the conquerors, and the usurpers.