Institutions
| “ | ... not only was the Heian system of imperial-aristocratic rule still vigorous during the twelfth century, but it also remained the essential framework within which the bakufu, during its lifetime, was obliged to operate. | ” |
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—Jeffrey P. Mass, p. 1, "The Kamakura Bakufu," Chapter 1 of Warrior Rule in Japan, Cambridge University Press 1996 |
Yoritomo established a chancellery, or mandokoro, as his principal organ of government. Later, under the Hōjō, a separate institution, the hyōjōshū became the focus of government.
The shogunate appointed new military governors (shugo) over the provinces. These were selected mostly from powerful families in the different provinces, or the title was bestowed upon a general and his family after a successful campaign. Although they managed their own affairs, in theory they were still obliged to the central government through their allegiance to the shogun. The military governors paralleled the existing system of governors and vice-governors (kokushi) appointed by the civil government in Kyoto.
Kamakura also appointed stewards, or jitō, to positions in the manors (shōen). These stewards received revenues from the manors in return for their military service. They served along with the holders of similar office, gesu, who delivered dues from the manor to the proprietor in Kyoto. Thus the dual governmental system reached to the manor level.
Read more about this topic: Kamakura Shogunate
Famous quotes containing the word institutions:
“There are no institutions in America: there are only fashions.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“You may melt your metals and cast them into the most beautiful moulds you can; they will never excite me like the forms which this molten earth flows out into. And not only it, but the institutions upon it are plastic like clay in the hands of the potter.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You see how this House of Commons has begun to verify all the ill prophecies that were made of it—low, vulgar, meddling with everything, assuming universal competency, and flattering every base passion—and sneering at everything noble refined and truly national. The direct tyranny will come on by and by, after it shall have gratified the multitude with the spoil and ruin of the old institutions of the land.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)