| The usurpation of the powers of the imperial court was largely unconscious and developed out of the economic and political conditions of the late Heian era. Primary factors in this evolution were: first, the wars of the 11th century, which had hastened the transfer of the prerogatives of ownership of the great aristocratic manors to military men who resided on them as bailiffs or wardens and who often had feudal ties with the warrior clans. The actual ownership of the estates usually remained unchanged, but ownership was robbed of most of its meaning by a complicated series of feudal rights (shiki), which ranged from rights to cultivate the land to rights to the income from it. A second factor in the evolution of feudalism was the breakdown of the old centralized government and the need for self-defense. Feudal military groups had grown up in the provinces as a result, with their own “house laws” governing the conduct and relations of the members of that group. Moreover, a feudal code of ethics had been developed that emphasized personal loyalty to a feudal lord rather than to a political ideal. A third factor was Minamoto prestige, which had for a long time induced landed warriors to commend themselves and their lands to the Minamoto for protection. The victory over the Taira greatly increased Minamoto feudal authority, both through new additions of this sort and through the confiscation of the vast Taira lands. The single Minamoto feudal union had consequently grown so large that it now controlled the nation, and its bakufu, not the impotent Kyoto administration, was the real government of the land. | 1 |
