Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/70

 when the city had two and three-fourths millions of inhabitants, it would seem that only thirty-five thousand pounds were expended for municipal purposes, whereas one hundred and seventy-two thousands were levied as State tax. Evidently an expenditure of thirty-five thousand pounds would have been totally insufficient for municipal administration according to modern ideas, but the fact is that the citizens themselves undertook duties which usually devolve on officialdom. All the houses were divided into groups of five each, and each group was held responsible, not only for the acts of its individual members, but also for the discharge of many municipal functions. Thus scavenging was effected by the hinin (outcasts), householders paying for the work; roads were repaired and bridges built by forced labour, by voluntary effort, or by means of special levies; there was no public system of street-lighting, each house providing a lamp for itself; police functions, as will be presently explained, were largely discharged by private individuals, and prison expenditures were defrayed by a system which did not include the citizens at large. It must be understood that in all statements of revenues accruing from lands and houses, and in all estimates of public outlays, the military class were not included: they did not pay any taxes.

Even in the provinces, side by side with feudal autocracy, an autonomic system prevailed, having for its basis the same "five men" grouping as that