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chief role was not played by either the Nakatomi or the Imbe Family to the disparagement of the other, but both were equally important and essential in the right performance of the religious rites in the Plain of High Heaven.
When the Divine Grandson descended to earth, and the Emperor Jimmu established the Imperial Court in Yamato after his triumphant entrance into that province, both the above families enjoyed equal privileges in the religious ceremonies observed at the Court.
Kamatari, the renowned ancestor of the Fujiwara Family (which sprang from the same root as the Nakatomi), gained supremacy in the political arena, after the Soga Family was annihilated in A.D. 645 during the reign of the Empress Kokyoku, and later on through its marital relations with the Imperial House, the Fujiwara Family practically governed Japan de facto and the authority of the Nakatomi gradually superseded that of the rival Imbe Family in the religious rites observed at the Imperial Court; thus, for example, in the reign of the Emperor Temmu (A.D. 673–686), the Asomi, i.e., the newly established Second Court Rank, was conferred on the Nakatomi, whilst only the Sukune, i.e., Third Court Rank was bestowed on the Imbe. This incident clearly proves that the Imbe then ranked below the Nakatomi, quite contrary to our time-honoured tradition that the Nakatomi and the Imbe were originally treated on exactly the same level at the Imperial Court, both in the Plain of High Heaven and in this Land of Luxuriant Reed Plains in ancient times.
Only those shrines which were closely related to the Nakatomi
