imperial courtier under whom the Fujiwara family began its three-century-long domination of the Japanese imperial government.

By the middle of the 9th century the Fujiwara clan had become powerful at court, mainly because of the consistent choice of its women as imperial consorts. In 857 Yoshifusa was appointed to the influential post of great minister of state (dajō daijin), a position the court had left vacant for several generations. The following year Yoshifusa had his nine-year-old grandson placed on the throne and had himself assigned as regent (sesshō), the first instance in Japan in which a commoner was made regent for a child sovereign.