Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/261

 force existed under the control of an official, who wielded large power. The members of the board (Kebiishi) over which he presided performed the functions not only of administrative police but also of magistrates and judges; the decrees of the board ranked with imperial ordinances, and persons violating them were treated as though they had disobeyed the sovereign's commands. But this organisation showed itself quite unable to preserve order. It could not check the lawlessness of the bandits that invaded Kyōtō and Nara; still less could it accomplish anything against the multitude of these depredators that infested the Island of Four Provinces (Shikoku). The bandits were, in truth, a sign of the time. Brigandage, in default of serfdom, suggested itself to many as the only possible refuge from the intolerable burden of taxation imposed to supply funds for the extravagant luxury of the aristocrats. Fourteen hundred houses lay untenanted at one time in Kyōtō, their inmates having fled to the provinces to live by plunder. The system of five-family guilds, under which the guild became collectively responsible if any of its members absconded without paying his taxes, ceased to have practical efficacy, for the guilds made their escape en masse. Once outside a circle of small radius surrounding Kyōtō, the fugitives were effectually beyond the reach of the central government's authority, for not only did the provincial nobles ignore Kyōtō's mandates, but