Stories of the Japanese 00349 [Mid-Heian Period] Rituals Becoming Needlessly Complex

It was not only Akimitsu who repeatedly made ceremonial mistakes. Fujiwara no Chikamasa, who was in a position to support Akimitsu as a Shonagon (Minor Counselor), also did not understand the procedures.
Lacking confidence, Chikamasa pasted a piece of paper called a shakushi onto the back of the board he held in his right hand, known as a shaku, and wrote the order of the ceremony on it. In other words, it was a cheat sheet.
Using a cheat sheet itself was not unusual. According to the diary of Fujiwara no Sanesuke, there is a record that Sanesuke's older brother, Kanehira, also attempted to use one.
However, Chikamasa confused the front and back of the shaku and held it in such a way that the cheat sheet was visible to everyone. It is recorded that there was no one who did not laugh at this.
Also, when recording the time on imperial edicts or official documents, Chikamasa was asked for the time by Akimitsu and replied 'Inu no yonkoku' (the fourth quarter of the Dog hour), but he should have replied in Yamato kotoba as 'Inu yotsu,' for which he was also reprimanded.
At the time, whether or not one was well-versed in such ceremonial procedures was a yardstick for judging whether someone was a capable person. While Fujiwara no Sanesuke seemed to be particularly respected as a specialist in rituals, it must be said that Akimitsu and Chikamasa were indeed reckless for facing the actual event without asking Sanesuke for guidance or undergoing sufficient practice.
Now, from the perspective of those of us living in the modern age, even though Akimitsu and Chikamasa exposed their blunders, the ceremonial procedures themselves had become needlessly complex, and it seems that the court nobles were only preoccupied with non-essential rituals.
Even in the case of the Koseki (gate-guarding) ceremony discussed this time, if the original purpose was to send imperial envoys during a change of emperor to have them guard the checkpoints in various provinces, they should have sent out the envoys to order the guarding as quickly as possible without wasting time. Nevertheless, preparing for days and performing the ceremony according to procedure is proof that no one was anticipating a rebellion. In other words, the work that was originally meant to prevent rebellion had become a mere shell, a ritual with no essential meaning.
'Increasing work by making rituals needlessly complex, arranging it so that differences arise between those who can adapt to it and those who cannot, and having everyone mock those who cannot' is a culture still seen today in the world of civil servants and large corporations. It is a phenomenon seen when society, or a company's performance, has stabilized and there are fewer issues to address.
I cannot believe that this era, in which the common people suffered from famine, was 'socially stable,' but since the aristocratic society, which had come to earn a stable income, was completely cut off from general society, it is likely that only the aristocrats felt stability and increased non-essential work. Even though social problems were piling up, the dynastic politics of the Heian period reached a 'completed form' of its own while, so to speak, turning its back on general society, and one cannot help but shake one's head at the ritualistic politics of this era.