They continued to serve as heads of the Imperial University, until Sugawara no Tamenaga became Associate Counselor, after which the clan reentered the upper court nobility.

Kiyotomo also founded a private school called Kanke Rōka, educated many students, and established kidendō, the study of history, as the family business.

In the early Kamakura period, Sugawara no Tamenaga (1158-1246) rose up to become Senior Second Rank, Associate Counselor and Head of the Ministry of the Treasury (Ōkura-kyō).

Additionally, because the Ōe clan, that had produced many chief experts on literature, had weakened, the Sugawara dominated the posts within the Faculty of Japanese and Chinese History.

After the mid-Heian period, the majority of the Confucian scholars participating in the planning process of era names were descendants of the Sugawara clan.