Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/28

 undisturbed and making all high officials its nominal appointees. After he had crushed his rivals, the Taira, he found in the provinces civil governors (Kokushi), who were practically irresponsible autocrats. He found also nobles who held hereditary possession of wide estates and had full power over the persons and properties of their tenants as well as over the minor land-holders in their district. To administer the country's affairs in fact as well as in name, these governors and manorial nobles must be removed. He therefore petitioned the Court, and obtained permission to appoint in each province a Constable (Shugo), or military governor, and a chief of lands (Jito), both responsible for preserving order and collecting and transmitting the taxes. These officials were all appointed from Kamakura, which thus became the real centre of administrative power. For himself, Yoritomo obtained the title of Lord High Constable (Sō-tsui-hōshi), which was afterwards supplemented by that of Tai-i-Shōgun (barbarian-subduing generalissimo). He was not a great general. In military ability he could not compare with either his brother, the brilliant and ill-fated Yoshitsune, or his cousin, the "morning-sun " captain Yoshinaka. Moreover, if his legislative and political talents command profound admiration, it is impossible to be certain how much of the credit belongs to him, how much to his able adviser, Oye-no-Hiromoto, who is said to have suggested all the reforms and drafted