The court and its provincesThe ancient northeast was repeatedly shocked by severe conflicts and rebellions, in con-
sequence of which provincial administration there was highly militarized. During the pre- ritsuryō
and Nara eras, tribal groups, called emishi, lived in the northeast of both Dewa and Mutsu. They
differed in language and culture from the dominating civilization of the archipelago, and may
have been related in some way to the Ainu, who continued to live in Hokkaido, outside the Jap-
anese imperium, into modern times. On the other hand, there was a considerable influx of people
from the Kantō into this region.^20 The northeast and the western great region, Saikaidō, which
included Kyushu and some smaller islands, and was overseen by a special supra- provincial office
called the Dazaifu, enjoyed a relatively autonomous status within the imperium for long time.^21
The provinces were divided into four categories (“big,” “upper,” “medium,” and “small”)
according to their tax output. Thus, the distance of a province from the capital and its output
category together with the data from koseki and denzu were the main parameters for planning the
budget of the central state.
The goods transported as tax to the capital comprised manifold kinds, from raw materials to
semi- finished or finished products. Tax goods were first delivered to special offices in the capital
and then distributed to the various holders of ranks or offices and of institutions. Recipients of
tax goods exchanged them at the two markets in the capital for whatever other goods they
needed. On that score, the central administration can be conceptualized as a huge distribution
apparatus responsible for providing the central elites with goods and services according to precise
regulations by law.^22 Thus, the central elites realized a uniform rule over land and people. They
were supported by local and regional elites, in exchange for which they accorded locals consider-
able autonomy, so that the system would function smoothly.
Diversifying center–province relations in the post- ritsuryo ̄ era
The ritsuryō state provisions for oversight of the lands and peoples in the provinces functioned
more or less intact for more than two centuries, until the beginning of the tenth century, when
periodic land allotments by the state were ended. After that, public lands—that is, taxable lands—
were re- conceptualized and reclassified, and remained in the hands of their tillers. Nevertheless,
the regular squares- and-strips- of-fields block pattern of arable land (the so- called jōri-system)
inscribed for long stretches into the landscape remained until modern times, bearing witness to
the endurance of the ritsuryō state and its successor systems.^23 The last new household registers,
this fundamentally important tool undergirding ritsuryō rule, were drawn up at the beginning of
the eleventh century.^24 But even thereafter, the central administration continued a stubborn—
albeit not thoroughly consistent at all levels—struggle to maintain control over the land, and
extreme concentration of power in the metropolitan center continued to determine the socio-
economic system, allowing us to speak of a post- ritsuryō era.
Another line of continuity was drawn by the central administration’s enduring financial
support of the imperial household, of the court nobility, and of the central shrines and temples.
These efforts served as the raison d’être connecting fiscal policy with the discourse of a “benevo-
lent government” (zensei) as the ideological reverse of land control, and as the legitimation of
imperial/court rule.
On the other hand, the first signs of antagonisms within the ritsuryō system appeared soon
after its inception. The central administration’s ongoing need to increase taxable land in order to
cover the high costs of its policies, was one major source of trouble here.
The support of Buddhist institutions in the provinces and the center, compulsory from the
eighth century onward, created a huge burden. Moving the capital from Heijō-kyō to Nagaoka-
kyō in 784 and to Heian- kyō in 794, with the population in Heijō-kyō doubling from 100,000