tained the form it had under Yoritomo: a Hyojo-shu
(Council), a Hikitsuke-shu, a Monju-dokoro, a Samurai-dokoro, and
various bugyo. In Kyushu and Dewa, the principal officer was called
shugo, that post being of special importance; while in the other
provinces shugo and jito (high constables and land-stewards)
continued to officiate as before.

The jurisdiction of these high constables--great military magnates or
relatives of the shogun--extended to two or more provinces, and the
shugo were then called kuni-mochi-shu (province-holder). A daimyo
(great name, i.e. feudal lord), in communicating with Muromachi, had
to make a kuni-mochi his medium. For the Kwanto and Shikoku, the
Hosokawa house was the kunimochi; for Shinano, Etchu, Echigo, and
Kaga, the Hatakeyama; for Ise, Kai, and Suruga, the Yamana; and for
Kyushu, the tandai. After the power of the tandai had declined, the
Ouchi family took its place. In the days of Yoshinori's shogunate,
there were twenty-two shugo in the country, and seven of them
administered three provinces or more, each. The provincial governors
appointed by the Southern Court disappeared, for the most part,
during the War of the Dynasties, and on the restoration of peace the
only one of these high officials that remained was Kitabatake of Ise.

SHUGO AND JITO

Originally appointed for administrative and fiscal purposes only, the
shugo said jito acquired titles of land-ownership from the beginning
of the Ashikaga era. To plunder and annex a neighbouring province
became thenceforth a common feat on the part of these officials. In
1390, tracts of land measuring from one-half of a province to two or
three provinces are found to have been converted from the shugo's
jurisdictional areas into military domains. Such magnates as Yamana
Tokiuji held from five to eleven provinces. These puissant captains
had castles and armies of their own. At first, they respected the
requisitions of the Bakufu. Thus, in 1463, when an elaborate Buddhist
ceremony had to be performed on the decease of Yoshimasa's mother, a
tax in the form of cotton cloth was levied from the shugo, a ruler of
three provinces contributing ten thousand pieces; a ruler of two
provinces, five thousand, and so on.*

*A "piece" was 40 feet, approximately. When the castle of Edo was
built in Tokugawa days--seventeenth century--each daimyo had to
contribute "aid" (otetsudai), after the Ashikaga custom.

But after the Onin War (1467-1469), milita