ABSTRACT
The principal function of the Jito, the land-steward, consisted in the collection of taxes. There was, however, a long list of various other duties entrusted to him, including reclamation of waste land, regulation of public roads, control of barriers and ports, management of inns and markets, and the apprehension and judgment of criminals. The relation of the high constable to the land-steward, and their respective positions in the administrative system of the state, were that the former represented the power of the Central Government, exercising a part of the state power, while the latter constituted a local administrative organ and was merely an agency assisting the former, though he often performed duties similar to those of the former. During the Minamoto period, heads of military class secured their power not from the Central Government, as the Prime Minister, Ministers of the Right, and others did in the monarchical period, but it rested upon their own local estates. This was especially true of high constables, whose power was based entirely upon the military men whom they recruited in their manor.
