Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/260

 for the instruction of the latter's children, relatives and vassals. The Wake family, the Fujiwara family, the Ariwara family, the Minamoto family, and the Tachibana family, each had its own school in the capital, but for the vast bulk of the nation no educational facilities of any kind existed. What the schools taught, too, was the art of employing the Chinese language deftly for composing stanzas and writing essays. Science and philosophy were not in the curricula. And even that meagre education ceased to be obtainable as Kyōtō fell into disorder towards the closing years of the Heian epoch. For in proportion as the Fujiwara nobles, who usurped the administrative authority, abandoned themselves to pleasure and neglected their official duties, their own followers set an example of lawlessness which provoked a retaliatory mood on the part of its victims, and, at the same time, not only did the provincial authorities become more and more independent of the central government, but the people also, rendered desperate by excessive taxation, took to robbery and piracy on an extensive scale. Gangs of bandits infested the provinces and invaded the capital itself, not hesitating even to besiege the house of a great noble. For several years a notorious leader of robbers lived openly in Kyōtō. At one time the officers of the Imperial guards trooped to the Palace en masse to clamour for rice; at another, armed soldiers intimidated and despoiled the citizens. A police