Table 22: Chamberlains and Police Commissioners I

¶In the sacred age of remote antiquity, when the land was ruled, within the court there were the deities of the five divisions, who directed ritual and government, and outside the court there were the soldiers of the Kume and Ōtomo clans, who bore the office of guarding the palace. When Taiso (Emperor Jinmu) ascended the throne, the capital had its Omi, Muraji, and Tomo-no-Miyatsuko, and the provinces and districts had their Kuni-no-Miyatsuko and Agatanushi; the offices were subordinate one to another, order was kept between great and small, and by a simple and plain system the realm was governed. With the Taika reform the institutions were changed, offices were established and duties divided, though most of this was an imitation of the system of the Tang (China). Thus the Dajōkan (Grand Council of State) was set up to oversee the Eight Ministries, and each of the Eight Ministries led its subordinate officials and shared among them the many affairs of government. The Jijū (Chamberlains) and the Nagon (Counselors) were installed to have charge of transmitting imperial edicts; the Danjōdai (Board of Censors) and the Gyōbushō (Ministry of Justice) were installed to correct wrongdoing and to adjudicate suits and criminal cases; and the Six Guards (Rokuefu) were installed to defend the palace gates and to guard against the unforeseen. The system, in its main lines and its details alike, was orderly and free of confusion; but in later ages, as habit continued, it declined, and many matters fell into abeyance. Now, since the office already existed, it should have been enough to require that office to perform its duty. Why, then, was it necessary to create a separate office and invite confusion? From the time Emperor Saga, who was fond of excursions and disliked deciding affairs of government in person, installed two Kurōdo-no-tō (Chief Chamberlains) to hear the various deliberations in his stead, the functions of the Jijū and the Nagon were encroached upon. He also installed the Kebiishi (Police Commissioners), had the Guards (Efu) hold the post concurrently, and had them share the duties of the Danjōdai and the Gyōbushō. That an emperor as brilliant as Emperor Saga should not have known that existing offices ought to be made to discharge their duties is hardly credible. Probably he shrank from reforming the system afresh and took the convenience of the moment, but this was precisely the stairway to later disorder. For once these two posts were established, power gathered in them; the regular officials all lost their functions, and in the end it came about that a Kugyō (high court noble) was made their Bettō (Superintendent). Thus the authority of the Kurōdo stood above the Jijū and Nagon, and the functions of the Kebiishi surpassed those of the Danjōdai and the Gyōbushō. The officials who had formerly had charge of confidential affairs became useless supernumeraries, and the system fixed by the former kings was all but laid waste. Alas, when one does not govern the root and concerns oneself only with the branches, it is the inevitable course of events that men either push one another aside or else shift responsibility onto one another. When Minamoto no Yoritomo arose, he petitioned the court to select and install deliberating advisers (gisō) from among the Kugyō, and since he recommended and appointed men close to himself, the Kurōdo lost their function. He placed Shugo (Protectors) in the capital and, since he raised his own retainers (kenin) and appointed them to the post, the Kebiishi likewise lost their real power. Once these two posts had lost their power, the great authority of the court passed wholly into the hands of the warriors. How can one help lamenting this? In sum, these two posts were not regular offices to begin with, yet when considered in the light of the circumstances of their times, they bore very greatly upon the state. Accordingly we now collate the various works, arrange in a table those who held office from the rank of Hangan (Judge) upward, and thereby make clear the course by which the state declined. Here we make the table of the Kurōdo (Chamberlains) and Kebiishi (Police Commissioners).

¶(Note: The table that follows in the original, listing the holders of these two offices, is not translated here. It is available in the Japanese edition.)