turning to the early part of the tenth century, the historian may
affirm that the salient features of the era were virtual abrogation
of the Daiho laws imposing restrictions upon the area and period of
land-ownership; rapid growth of tax-free manors and consequent
impoverishment of the Court in Kyoto; the appearance of provincial
magnates who yielded scant obedience to the Crown, and the
organization of military classes which acknowledged the authority of
their own leaders only.

REVOLT OF TAIRA NO MASAKADO

The above state of affairs soon bore practical fruit. In the year
930, the Emperor Daigo died and was succeeded by his son Shujaku, a
child of eight, whose mother was a daughter of Fujiwara Mototsune. In
accordance with the system now fully established, Fujiwara Tadahira
became regent. History depicts this Tadahira as an effeminate
dilettante, one of whose foibles was to have a cuckoo painted on his
fan and to imitate the cry of the bird whenever he opened it. But as
representative of the chief aristocratic family in an age when to be
a Fujiwara was to possess a title superior to that conferred by
ability in any form and however conspicuous, his right to administer
the government in the capacity of regent obtained universal
recognition.

It had become the custom at that time for the provincial magnates to
send their sons to Kyoto, where they served in the corps of guards,
became acquainted with refined life, and established relations of
friendship with the Taira and the Minamoto, the former descended from
the Emperor Kwammu, the latter from the Emperor Seiwa. Thus, at the
time of Daigo's death, a scion of the Taira, by name Masakado, was
serving under Tadahira in the capital. Believing himself endowed with
high military capacity, Masakado aspired to be appointed kebiishi of
his native province, Shimosa. But his archery, his horsemanship, and
his fencing elicited no applause in Kyoto, whereas a relative,
Sadabumi, attracted admiration by a licentious life.

Masakado finally retired to Shimosa in an angry mood. At first,
however, the idea of revolt does not seem to have occurred to him. On
the contrary, the evidence is against such a hypothesis. For his
military career began with family feuds, and after he had killed one
of his uncles on account of a dispute about the boundaries of a
manor, and sacked the residence of another in consequence of a
trouble about a woman, he did not hesitate to obey a summons to Kyot