Fujiwara no Michinaga ascendant at Heian court

1007

The regent who would joke that he felt the full moon was his, that nothing in the world was lacking, reached his dominance in Kyoto. Three of his daughters became empresses; literature, perfume competitions, and exquisite politeness masked a court where succession was pure manipulation. His diary, the Mido Kanpakuki, survives as one of the most revealing political records of medieval Japan.