ABSTRACT
Under the system borrowed from China and formalized in the Taiho ritsuryo codes of 701, land on the Japanese archipelago was viewed as state property to be exploited for the benefit of the court nobility. The ritsuryo codes defined a four-layered system of administration and supervision, establishing fifty-eight provinces gathered into seven circuits and a capital region and subdivided into districts, which were further divided into townships. Provincial officers—the governor (kami), assistant governor (suke), secretaries (jo), and inspectors (sakan)—were all central nobles dispatched from the capital. The ritsuryo codes stipulated three types of taxes: a land tax, per capita taxes in kind, and labor services. Rice, other foodstuffs, textiles, raw materials, and craft wares were regarded by court elites, not as luxury goods, but as essential to sustaining their daily lives and official duties. Such goods were channeled from the provinces to the capital via tax levies and contract tributes and through patron-client relationships.
