The court and its provincesprovincial officers. Bearing prestigious surnames like Minamoto, Taira, or Fujiwara, they
exploited their stature as men from the capital. They also served on behalf of the central admin-
istration as military leaders in wars in the northeast, recruiting their troops from among the
regional elites, and paying them from their own funds. Thus emerged the nucleus of a new type
of regional elite, the predecessors of the medieval warriors and local lords (zaichi ryōshu) who
climbed on the stage later, in the eleventh century.^39
In the background of all these developments, we have to suppose long- lasting social conflicts
only exceptionally finding their way into the documents produced by and for central elites. For
example, five conflicts over water rights are documented on the occasion of the establishment of
the shōen in order to finance Tōdaiji (744–767). In this case, the opposing parties were the central
administration, together with the provincial governors and Tōdaiji, on the one hand, and the
heads of the district offices, together with representatives of the local elites, on the other. Only
during a conflict in 761 were all the actors united in opposition to the temple. In a period of 250
years from the early ninth until the middle of the eleventh centuries, at least seventy- four large
social conflicts appear in the documents, and the struggle for water rights was only one important
factor. In most cases, as opponents we find the governors and other provincial officials on one
side, and the district officials together with local dignitaries including some low- ranking officers
of the provincial administration on the other. We can identify various sorts of conflicts, from
nonviolent complaints against a governor (ureijō; thirty- two cases from 819 until 1052) to
extremely violent incidents, such as assaults on the provincial government (twelve cases between
884 and 1023) or even assassinations of the governor (twelve cases between 857 and 1027). We
also find vague reports of rebellions or upheavals (nine cases from 839 to 942). On the other hand,
we find “letters of praise” (zenjō) for governors who had carried out outstanding benevolent rule,
which we may interpret as expressions of a tense social situation.^40
Some conflicts created a long- lasting sensation in the public discourse. The rebellion of Taira
Masakado, a member of a central noble house that had settled in the provinces, is a prominent
example.^41
Masakado’s grandfather, Prince Takamochi, was a great- grandson of Emperor Kanmu
(r. 781–806) who had been pruned from the imperial family and given the family name Taira—a
common practice for managing the size of the imperial family. His father was head of the Pacifi-
cation Headquarters (chinjufu) in the northeast, and had settled in the Kantō after the termination
of his military service. Typical of his class, Masakado served in the provincial military, and his
economic base lay in agriculture and land exploitation, but even more in stud farming and stock
breeding. In 935, he became embroiled in a quarrel with some of his relatives that spread into a
conflict with the administrations of several provinces, and escalated into a rebellion reaching
across the entire northern Kantō. In 940, he was killed by government troops under command of
his relatives and peers—troops of the same type he was commanding himself.
Another type of social conflict that was less martial but that spotlights the dramatic situation
in the provincial society lasted from 988 until 989. The governor, Fujiwara Motonaga, and his
followers ransacked Owari province (today part of Aichi prefecture). The regional elites formed
an alliance against Motonaga by taking him to court in the capital, with some success—at least
for a couple of years.^42 These conflicts give us a rough idea of the forces behind institutional
changes and underline the special interest regional elites deserve.
In the middle of the eleventh century, the tax system underwent another change. In the “Edict
of Enkyū era for the Control of Shōen” (Enkyū no shōen seiri rei) issued in 1069, an “office of
control over the registered shōen” (kiroku shōen kenkei sho) was established to coordinate central
land policy. The tax base was concentrated in “public fields” (kōden) fixed by the provincial
administration in registers (ōtabumi) together with the rate and kind of taxes. Some regional