Kokushi (official)

Kokushi or Kuni no tsukasa ( Sino Japanese and purely Japanese reading of Japanese国 司) described the highest officials, who formed the civilian government of the provinces of Japan ( kuni ). Often, this term only the highest official, the provincial governor, respectively.

History

The Kokushi emerged since the introduction of the ritsuryō system and replaced the previous Kuni no miyatsuko. Your official residence was the Kokuchō in the provincial administration ( Kokuga ).

As with the appointment to Kokushi also coincided with a salary commensurate happened appointment as a reward to officials of the imperial court, which remained after their appointment at the court. One such office was Yōnin (遥 任, " remote office" ) or yoju (遥 授, " remote authorization" ) and called the incumbent posted in their place a Mokudai (目 代, "Eye Replacement ') as his deputy.

To prevent personal enrichment, the Kaiserhof originally demanded a detailed report especially about the tax revenue that was matched with all interim reports, and inspections. Deficits had either to be paid out of the personal assets or resulted in a career stop or end. Since this required a time-consuming administration, 731, a new system was introduced, in which a successor had to audit his predecessor and the predecessor only after receiving (受领, zuryō ) a release letter (解 由 状, geyujō ) was the successor to take up his next post, while in return the successor for undiscovered misconduct could be sued personally. Over time designated Zuryō then those officials, who held the supreme power on site, ie the effective instead of nominal provincial governor.

In 1336 early Muromachi shogunate and the weakening of the imperial court was the military post of Shugo daimyo later emerged from the ever more powers of Kokushi. The provinces were eventually dominated by these military governors. The Kokushi - offices were as of this date only ceremonial in nature or pure Titularämter no function and it was therefore common that the Kokushi no longer dwelt in their respective province.

The ritsuryō system saw a four-level officials System ( Shitōkan ) before:

• Kami (守) designates the office manager who has the function of a provincial governor here
• Suke (介) as provincial vice governor,
• Jō (掾) as Provincial Secretary and
• Sakan (目) as Provinzkonzipist.

From the classification of the province as a major province ( Taikoku ), Upper Province ( jōkoku ), Central Province ( Chugoku ) or sub-province ( gekoku ) depended on whether and how often the particular item was assigned, as well as which court rank the incumbent had to have: