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changed the words in the report to the Emperor, saying: “Nakatomi with Imbe (130) under him is now at the August Gates.” In this way the Imbe, once placed in an inferior position to that of the Nakatomi, have never been restored to their old right place all this time owing to official procrastination and the negligence of the officials of the Imperial Household Department. This is one thing that I feel keenly regrettable.
Sixth, beginning with the Divine Age, both the Nakatomi and the Imbe (131) Families took equal charge of the Shinto State Affairs and yet, later on, the authority of one was increased over the other. For example, at the beginning of the Enryaku Era (132), when the Imperial Princess Asahara (133) was appointed Guardian Priestess of the Sun-Goddess at Ise, so low a rank as the Eighth Court Rank (134) was given afresh to the Imbe Family, and they remain in that rank until now, though like the Nakatomi they had previously held the Seventh Court Rank,—in this case by the Nakatomi and the Imbe Families we mean the members of both families as Shinto priests attached to the Bureau for the Imperial Guardian Priestess. This is, indeed, a matter of deep regret.
Seventh, it was one of the sacred duties of the Nakatomi and the Imbe Families, to distribute sacrificial offerings to the gods and goddesses throughout the land, but now only the Nakatomi, to the exclusion of the Imbe Family, by Government permission, enjoys the monopoly of hierarchic authority given to the Dazaifu or Civil and War Administration Office (135) in Kyushu. To my great regret, this is contrary to the way among us of old.
