As the Ritsuryo system declined and the court itself started to function as the institution to manage the Emperor's family's household, it became tradition for the position of Kuranokami (the chief of Kuraryo) to be filled by court officials of the fourth rank that had previously been Kurodonoto (the chief of Kurodo Dokoro) or worked in the Benkan (clerical section) or Konoefu (Imperial palace guards), and then in the period of governments by cloistered emperors became a position for prominent Zuryo (head of provincial government) with strong financial power, and in the early Muromachi period, the Yamashina family held the position together with the position, Mizushidokoro Betto (superintendent of the cooking section for the emperor), and it has been essentially their hereditary post ever since.
律令制の衰退によって朝廷自体が天皇家の家政機関としての色彩を強めてくると、内蔵頭には蔵人頭や弁官・近衛府を歴任した四位の殿上人が就任するのが慣例となり、更に院政期には財力を有する有力な受領に移り、室町時代初期には山科家の当主が御厨子所別当を兼務して就任するようになると、以後同家の事実上の世襲となった。