The Localization of Japanese Ancient Centralized Governance

     At the beginning of the Japanese Ancient Centralized Government era, in the 7th century, provincial officers’ jobs were to impose and deepen the governance into every corner of Japan.  The government was also busy sending subjugation armies to the South and to the North and extending the governance outward.  The governance was a top-down management.

     In the 8th and 9th centuries, provincial officers started proposing their ideas.  The tendency was basically upward.

     In the 23 years from 782 to 805, 7.4 percents of laws were made in the central government on the basis of the proposals by provincial officers; in the 4 years from 806 to 809, 11.6 percents; in the 14 years from 810 to 823, 18.4 percents; in the 10 years from 824 to 833, 25.7 percents; in the 14 years from 834 to 847, 24.8 percents; in the 3 years from 848 to 850, 45.0 percents; in the 3 years from 851 to 853, 27.8 percents; in the 3 years from 854 to 856, 33.3 percents; in the 2 years from 857 to 858, 0.0 percent; in the 18 years from 859 to 876, 34.4 percents; in the 8 years from 877 to 884, 49.0 percents; in the 4 years from 885 to 888, 9.5 percents; in the 9 years from 889 to 897, 32.2 percents; and in the 3 years from 898 to 900, 31.6 percents respectively.

     The 2 years from 857 to 858 was at the end of Emperor Montoku’s days.  In 855, the insurrections among Northern people broke out, and, in 857, those among Tsushima Island did in the South.  Fujiwara Yoshifusa (804-872), Montoku’s uncle, made a regent in the central government, the first non-royal regent ever.  Some scholars today even argue that the emperor was assassinated by Yoshifusa.  The governance was being severely shaken externally and internally.

     In 887, a megathrust earthquake broke out in July.  Tokai earthquakes, Tonankai earthquakes, and Nankai earthquakes broke out in linkage.  As many as 30 provinces were severely and extensively damaged.

     Without those exceptions, the localization of the governance was on a rising note.