ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapter we saw how the land reforms were the first casualties in the failure of the Great Reforms. With their failure, the obligation of national military service in return for land was eroded by the practice of kishin. The concept of a national conscript army had collapsed. In Kyōto, where noble families vied with one another for the sinecure of mounting guard at the Palace, there was no shortage of volunteers for ‘military service’, but in the eastern and northern provinces, where the aboriginal ‘emishi’ were to be found, there was a continuing security problem. The emishi were skilled archers and fierce fighters. Besides the emishi there were other sporadic rebellions to be put down, and persistent forays by bandits and highwaymen. The conscript system having failed, security in those outlying areas passed more and more into local hands by commissioning landowners. The Court nobles, enjoying the languid life that has come down to us in such novels as The Tale of Genji, were most unwilling to undertake a Shōgunal commission to subdue enemies, and were indeed so preoccupied with life in the capital that garrisons in outlying areas were actually reduced and the soldiers brought back to guard the city.
