Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The court at Kyoto and its provinces · as at first light, 1 January 1200

The court's governors and proprietors in the east

East of the old Suzuka, Fuwa and Arachi line the court still governs by paper, and for much of the ground that paper is what counts.

Each province has a governor (kokushi) named in Kyoto, usually an absentee who draws the post's profit and sends a deputy (mokudai), with the old local officials (zaichō kanjin) doing the work at the provincial seat (kokufu). Over most of the country lie the estates (shōen) of the great proprietors, in layers: the cloistered emperor and the imperial family's blocks, the regent houses, the great temples and shrines (Enryakuji, Kōfukuji, Tōdaiji, Ise Jingū and others), each holding rights (honke, ryōke) over the one beneath. Kamakura's reach is narrower: it names the governors of the provinces of its own group (the gobunkoku: Mikawa, Musashi, Suruga from 1184, and others that are not pinned) and has put stewards (jitō) on the estates of its housemen.

In Owari, Mino and Hida the court's paper is stronger than Kamakura's; in Echizen and the Hokuriku it is stronger still, and Kamakura's grip shows only in the stewards and, on the likely course, the one big case of 1201, the rising of the Jō in Echigo.

Who he is

Name
not known for any province on 1 January 1200
Title
Collective: provincial governors (kokushi) named in Kyoto, their deputies and local officials, and the proprietors of the estates
Since
not applicable
Family
Go-Toba, the cloistered emperor since 1198, governs for his infant son Tsuchimikado; Minamoto no Michichika is the strongest man at his court (the brief); the regent's chair is not held by Kujō Kanezane, who fell in the coup of 1196.
Confidence
low

The brief and the campaign board; Mass and the Cambridge History from memory. The lists of governors for 1199 and 1200 could not be opened.

Overlord

Go-Toba and, in law, the emperor Tsuchimikado

What it holds

  • The appointment of governors (kokushi) in the provinces Kamakura does not name
  • The public land (kokugaryō) and the provincial seats
  • The great proprietors' estates, in layers
  • The court's offices at Tsuruga, Mino and the Fuwa barrier on the roads to the north and east

How it was acquired

By the old law of the Ritsuryō state, reworked by the cloistered emperors of the twelfth century.

Allies and rivals

Allied in part with Kamakura (the Kujō-Konoe side), rivalled by Kamakura's own appointments. The great temples' estates are untouchable by the stewards.

How things stand that morning

A court lordship with weak hands: the paper holds, the men who enforce it are Kamakura's or the temples'.

Wealth

Public revenue (rice, cloth, silk, timber, salt), the estates' dues, the road tolls; no figure.

Military

No standing force beyond the guard of the governor's deputy; the court calls on Kamakura's constables and the temples' monks. No numbers.

Threats

  • Kamakura's extension of stewards onto court estates
  • Temple disputes (Hakusan, Enryakuji)
  • Revolt of Taira remnants

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. Kennin 2/10 (about November 1202)Michichika dies and the court party changes.Depends on: Natural death Stopped by: Nothing in play stops a natural death; only a change in the person's circumstances (illness cured, flight, removal) alters the date, and the campaign rules on that.

Where the sources disagree

  • The assignment asks for 'Kyoto's officials in Owari, Mikawa, Tōtōmi, Echizen and the north'. We could not open any list of governors for 1199 or 1200 and leave them unnamed.

Evidence: No source for the individual governors; the structure is from Mass.

On the map: Not drawn: the province records say where the court's paper counts.

Primary sources for Kyoto court

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

4 more in the sources library for Korea and Japan.

Sources and studies

  1. KJA_BRIEF.md and the OMNIA board for sheet kja (the lead's notes: [own] computation, [not yet checked against the source] recollection, [en] English Wikipedia)
  2. Azuma Kagami (the Kamakura chronicle), Kenkyu 10 to Shoji 2 entries, recalled and through the brief; ja.wikipedia and ja.wikisource were refused in this session, so no entry was re-read
  3. Jeffrey P. Mass, Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan (1974), from memory; the archive.org full text could not be opened
  4. English Wikipedia: Shugo (read this session; thin)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.