Thus the land and the people were national ized. The reform, however, was not com plete until the laws of the Emperor Mommu were promulgated, A.D. 702. These laws were called Taiho-ryo. By the Reform of Taikwa all people, except military functionaries, were prohibited from bearing swords. Even the royal members and state ministers were not exempted from this rule. By Taiho-ryo the principle of universal military service was in troduced, by which every third male was to serve as a soldier. The term of the soldiers in the capital was one year, and that of those in the sea borders three years.
But the above reform and regulations based on it came at a time to be impracticable. For it was the entire reorganization of the central and local administration, as well as of the mode of land-ownership, which the state tried to in troduce, while it left the clan and family asso ciations in society as heretofore. The heredity of public functions in certain clans and families was abolished, but the same persons were em ployed as before in the central and local ad ministration under different names and qualifi cations. The state was too weak to enforce the intended reforms, while the clanship and family associations were too deeply rooted to be overcome. In time the Fujiwara family or clan descended from Kamatari, who with the Crown Prince Naka-no-oye (afterward the Em peror Tenchi) carried through the reform of Taikwa, got the complete power of govern ment and official functions into their hands. As the salaries of officials in those days, paid by the gifts of cloth and certain amounts of taxes from the land and the people, were not sufficient for ambitious and avaricious men, they appropriated the waste lands, and by culti vation turned them into fertile fields. Thus the private ownership of land and private juris diction rearose, and increased more and more. Within these private lands called Shoyen, the central and local governments had no power of administration and the personal and household taxes were free, while the taxes on land were very light. So the increase of these lands subtracted in fact so much from the power of the emperor and the state that the court tried to put an end to this private system of owner ship and jurisdiction. But being unable to pro hibit it, the court finally succumbed to it; that is, the court sanctioned it, and had its own private domain and jurisdiction.
As the central government was too feeble, and the system of universal military service and drill was not carried out, there arose a powerful class of men in the country who were at first the administrators of Shoyen or the court nobles' private lands, ruled the peasants below them, and sent soldiers to the capital as guards and police. They were the middle class and backbone of society throughout the whole country. They were afterward called Bushi or Samurai. (See article—THE SAMURAI). In
the meantime the old clanship and family asso ciations were entirely confused, but the new clanship and associations arose in their place. Such was the Fujiwara Clan, and after it came Tachibana, Taira and Minamoto clans in suc cession. They were the nobles of the capital, branched out from the imperial family, whose descendants and relations were ramified throughout the country. As the government was too weak to protect the life and property of the people, the noble clans attached to them selves the people, and especially the fighting men became their retainers. In the capital (Kioto) the Fujiwara Clan held the perfect control of government for several centuries. But they were mostly civilians and had need of generals who could fight. Now the two clans of Taira and Minamoto, which title was be stowed by the emperor, respectively descended from the younger sons of the mperors Kwammu (A.D. 782-806) and Seiwa A.D.( 859 77), became very powerful as military leaders. They were not able to compete with the Fuji wara Clan in civil administration and at the court, and so they served as generals and as local governors, where there was much disturb ance. They grew up to be two great rival clans in the capital and throughout the country. The fighting men, or Bushi, became their re tainers. Thus the new feudalism, based on land and local associations and attached to the military clans of Taira or Minamoto, was gradually formed in spite of the prohibitions and remonstrances from the central govern ment. Finally the emperor, the Fujiwara Clan and their several families were powerless against the two military clans, who had suc cessively fought with each other for the su premacy in the capital and in the country. The Minamoto Clan vanquished the Taira Clan under the leadership of the two brothers, Yori tomo and Yoshitsune. Yoritomo (A.D. 1186 1200) was the founder of military government and organizer of territorial feudalism, which continued down to the Restoration of 1868. Yoritomo was the first Shogun (general in chief) in the special sense of that term. He established military court called Bakufu at Kamakura, which was the second capital and the centre of military government for 146 years (A.D. 1186-1332). Yoritomo, by the sanc tion of the emperor, established the military chiefs in every province side by side with the civil governors appointed by the court. Thus peace and order were preserved, after civil wars had distracted the whole country. The code of honor and allegiance to some military chiefs besides the emperor, now called Bushido, arose in this period. The virtues of courage, loyalty, magnanimity, simplicity and frugality were inculcated by Yoritomo and his contempo raries. From this period also those who had large private estates and many retainers were called Daimyo (greater barons), and those who had smaller estates Shomyo (lesser barons).