A Study of Basic Governmental Policy in the Early Heian Period : With special reference to the Konin (弘仁) era

This paper is chiefly concerned with the political policy of the early Heian period, which is regarded by most scholors as a turning point in the Heian period. In the beginning of the Ninth Century, the Ritsuryo (律令) Government made much of the Kokushi's (国司) use of discretionary power to arrest the decline of the local government system, in order to preserve aristocratic advantage. This is shown by studing the change in the land system, Gunji (郡司) system, and the system of ruling the people during the Kōnin era. But the cognizance of dependency on the rule of the Kokushi was merely ideological, so inversely the Government, in the Tenchou (天長) era, kept a light rein on the Kokushi. As the result of it's trial and error, the Ritsuryo Government was obliged to change it's political policy in the middle of the Ninth Century