The apparatus to manage official documents under the Ritsuryo system, namely the Gekikyoku (Secretaries' Office) and the Benkankyoku (Controller's Office), was dismantled in the 10th century, which led people to begin seeking to modify the precedents for etiquette and legal judgments of public ceremonies and events according to what was found in the written record as recorded in diaries; this meant that for the noble families of aristocratic society, who tended to own many such diaries and could now use them to defend their own pedigree according to past precedent, great importance came to be attached to diaries.
外記局や弁官局などが持っていた律令制における公文書管理組織が解体していった10世紀に儀式や公事の作法・判断の典拠として日記に記された先例故実の校勘に求めるようになり、そうした日記を多く所持していた家系がそれを理由として先例故実の家柄として公家社会において重要視されるようになった。