The provincial seat (kokufu) of Bizen, at Okayama (Kokufu).
Bizen is the sword country: the smiths of Fukuoka make long blades (see Fukuoka (Bizen)). As everywhere in 1200 the governor (kokushi) is a courtier named by the court, often a favourite of the cloistered emperor or of a regent house, who may never go; his deputy (mokudai) and the local officials (zaichō kanjin) keep the office, and the revenue is divided among the governor, the proprietors of the estates and, where one is named, the Kamakura constable (shugo) and stewards (jitō) who keep the peace. The Chinese grid of the compound has mostly returned to fields [not yet checked against the source].
The governor's name for 1 January 1200 is not known. The campaign board puts the kokufu at 34.66, 133.98, east of Okayama; the exact site of the provincial office is not pinned.
Who holds it
- Name
- not known for 1 January 1200
- Title
- Governor (kokushi) with his deputy (mokudai) and the local officials
- Confidence
- low
No governor's list was reachable for 1200.
Lord in 1200
The governor's deputy and the local officials; Kamakura's constable, if any, is not named for 1 January 1200.
Overlord
the court; Kamakura's constable over the peace, where one is named
How things stand that morning
A provincial seat at work; no event known for 1199 or 1200.
Trade and crafts
Rice and tax goods; local markets.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The campaign board entry and recollection; the site of the kokufu in 1200 is not pinned.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Placed on the campaign board's or the gazetteer's site; the kokufu of 1200 lay within a few kilometres.
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.
- Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
- Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
- Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Diary of the Inokuma Regent: the diary of Konoe Iezane, Konoe Iezane (近衛家実) (1197 to 1218, as a daily diary). The diary of the regent's heir, aged twenty-one in 1200 and already a senior courtier under his father Konoe Motomichi, who was regent (sessho) for the child emperor Tsuchimikado. Read online
- Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
- Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
- Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Korea and Japan.
Sources and studies
- OMNIA kja regional brief (KJA_BRIEF.md), the campaign's dated traps and realm table
- OMNIA board notes and places for area kjw (starting lead only, checked against the sources)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.