Table 10: Provincial and District Governors I

¶That which the successive divine and sacred emperors received from their ancestors and handed down for ten thousand generations is, of all things, none weightier than the land and none dearer than the people. Since they entrusted both to officials charged with governing the land and caring for the people, so that those officials might give full effect to their devotion to the land and the people, how could the choice of such officials be anything but most carefully made? In ancient times Chūsō (Emperor Kōtoku) assisted in the government of the Taika reform; he perceived early on the causes of the abuses that had accumulated over many years, abolished the Kuni-no-Miyatsuko and the Agatanushi, and replaced them with the Kokushi and the Gunji. In thus discarding the old and renewing the new, he planned for the land and the people with the utmost thoroughness. For this reason he constantly exhorted the Kokushi with the sincerity of purity, clarity, and uprightness, urging them to apply themselves with vigor and so carry out the government that preserves the land and extend the benevolence that cherishes the people. That he further added a policy of dismissing the corrupt and raising up the pure was in every case in order to uphold the sacred teaching and to realize the loftiness, depth, breadth, and greatness of the imperial enterprise. By the Taihō and Yōrō periods the regulations for evaluation and appointment were greatly perfected, and the selection of Kokushi was likewise treated as a matter of weight. In the years of Enryaku and Tenchō, discipline and order were about to be restored, and those who did not uphold the law were severely dismissed and punished. Newly appointed officials were especially granted an audience, so highly was the manner of governing prized; where a province had arrears of business, its Kokushi were made to state it in person, and those whose achievements were outstanding were rewarded with distinguished posts. Many of the ministers of state were drawn from among the Kokushi, and they came to the great offices of government well versed in the affairs of the people. The flourishing of administration by officials never equalled that of this age. Now, from the Tenpyō period onward, the kukai (official fund) was established, so that the income of the Kokushi was doubled and made richer, and all officials of the capital came to seek provincial posts (gainin). Afterward supernumerary officials were also appointed and given stipends, and the burden borne by the people grew ever heavier. From the Jōgan period onward the discipline of the court was no longer upheld, and government passed into the hands of the maternal relatives of the emperors. The Kokushi were for the most part appointed from among their partisans; they devoted their efforts to the management of private houses and could no longer maintain order within their jurisdictions. Wicked and powerful families vied in annexing land, robbers rose in secret and killed and plundered officials, and the Kokushi frequently came to fear and avoid going to their posts. In addition, the estates (shōen) arose more with each passing day while the tax revenues of chō and yō declined year by year, so that the court at last came to sell offices to meet its expenses, and the evil of the Kokushi obtaining their posts through jōgō (appointment by purchase of office) arose from this. Now the Gunji, in the beginning, were appointed from among the Kuni-no-Miyatsuko. Almost all were descendants of the deities, succeeding one another through the generations, and were the objects of the people's trust; their power was such that it could not suddenly be changed, and so their tenure was set at life. In the Enryaku period, on the ground that there were abuses in the office of Gunji, an edict abolished fudai (hereditary succession) and decreed the selection of those of superior talent; but later the feelings of the people did not accept this, and since there was much cause for anxiety both public and private, hereditary succession was again employed. In the Kanpyō period the Gunji were driven out by the Kokushi and, resenting this, some left to become private retainers of the kugyō, while others took posts in the imperial guards. When they returned to their home districts, they still decided matters by force of arms within a region of their own. The so-called residents (jūnin) of the provinces and districts, and the warriors of the military houses, also arose from this. Now, if one tried to set effete, weak, and fawning parasites of powerful houses over the stubborn and unruly, how could they possibly be controlled at will? Hence those of imperial descent who went out to live in the provinces and districts allied themselves with the so-called jūnin already there and made common cause with them, and the local leaders, responding to one another and gathering in bands, over a long period came to accept without shame becoming retainers of the Minamoto and the Taira. Thus the selection of Gunji at last could no longer secure the right men, and the true state of affairs ceased to be transmitted. By the time of the reign of Emperor Shirakawa, there were Kokushi with fixed terms, Kokushi reappointed to the same post, and even Kokushi appointed while still children, all obtaining their posts by jōgō (appointment through the offering of wealth); their disorder and excess had already reached an extreme. The government of Taihō and Yōrō, which governed the land and cherished the people, had all collapsed. When Minamoto no Yoritomo established the Shugo and the Jitō, he appointed to them those who were willing to become his retainers. Thus the court's authority to govern the people had already been lost and could never be regained. This is precisely why the gain and loss of land and the union and separation of the people's hearts are matters of the gravest importance and cannot be left unrecorded. Accordingly we now search the national history and the various other works from the Taika reform down to the Meitoku period and record in order the officials from the Kami (Governor), Suke (Assistant Governor), Jō (Third Official), and Sakan (Fourth Official) down to the Shusei and Shuchō of the districts, compiling this table of the provincial and district governors.

¶(Note: The tables that follow in the original, listing the governors and district officials province by province, are not translated here. They are available in the Japanese edition.)