ring the reigns of Shomu and Koken. To meet the expense of building
temples and casting images, men of substance in the provinces were
urged to make contributions of money, cereals, or land, and in return
for this liberality they were granted official posts. It resulted
that no less than thirty-one supernumerary provincial governors were
borne on the roll at one time, and since all these regarded office as
a means of recouping the cost of nomination, taxpayers and persons
liable to the corvee fared ill. In 774, Koken issued an edict that
provincial governors who had held office for five years or upwards
should be dismissed at once, those of shorter terms being allowed to
complete five years and then removed.

Another evil, inaugurated during the reign of Shomu, when faith in
the potency of supernatural influences obsessed men's minds, was
severely dealt with by Konin. Office-seekers resorted to the device
of contriving conflagrations of official property, rewarding the
incendiaries with the plunder, and circulating rumours that these
calamities were visitations of heaven to punish the malpractices of
the provincial governors in whose jurisdictions they occurred. It is
on record that, in several cases, these stories led to the dismissal
of governors and their replacement by their traducers. Konin decreed
that such crimes should be punished by the death of all concerned.
These reforms, supplemented by the removal of many superfluous
officials, earned for Konin such popularity that for the first time
in Japan's history, the sovereign's birthday became a festival*,
thereafter celebrated through all ages.

*Called Tenchosetsu.

THE MILITARY SYSTEM

It has been shown that compulsory military service was introduced in
689, during the reign of the Empress Jito, one-fourth of all the
able-bodied men in each province being required to serve a fixed time
with the colours. It has also been noted that under the Daiho
legislation the number was increased to one-third. This meant that no
distinction existed between soldier and peasant. The plan worked ill.
No sufficient provision of officers being made, the troops remained
without training, and it frequently happened that, instead of
military exercises, they were required to labour for the enrichment
of a provincial governor.

The system, being thus discredited, fell into abeyance in the year
739, but that it was not abolished is shown by the fact that, in 780,
we find the priv