ng the owner of the land, leased a
part of it to the members of the uji, collected a percentage of the
produce, and presented a portion to the Court when occasion demanded.
Hence, so long as the sovereign's influence was powerful, the uji no
Kami and other territorial magnates, respecting his orders, refrained
from levying taxes and duly paid their appointed contributions to the
Court.

But in later times, when the Throne's means of enforcing its orders
ceased to bear any sensible ratio to the puissance of the uji no Kami
and other local lords, the Imperial authority received scanty
recognition, and the tillers of the soil were required to pay heavy
taxes to their landlords. It is a fallacy to suppose that the Emperor
in ancient times not only ruled the land but also owned it. The only
land held in direct possession by the Throne was that constituting
the Imperial household's estates and that belonging to members of the
Imperial family. The private lands of the Imperial family were called
mi-agata.* The province of Yamato contained six of these estates, and
their produce was wholly devoted to the support of the Court. Lands
cultivated for purposes of State revenue were called miyake.** They
existed in several provinces, the custom being that when land was
newly acquired, a miyake was at once established and the remainder
was assigned to princes or Court nobles (asomi or asori). The
cultivators of miyake were designated ta-be (rustic corporation); the
overseers were termed ta-zukasa (or mi-ta no tsukasa), and the
officials in charge of the stores were mi-agata no obito.

*The prefix mi (honourable) was and is still used for purposes of
courtesy.

**In ancient Japan, officials and their offices were often designated
alike. Thus, miyake signified a public estate or the store for
keeping the produce, just as tsukasa was applied alike to an overseer
and to his place of transacting business.

As far back as 3 B.C., according to Japanese chronology, we read of
the establishment of a miyake, and doubtless that was not the first.
Thenceforth there are numerous examples of a similar measure.
Confiscated lands also formed a not unimportant part of the Court's
estates. Comparatively trifling offences were sometimes thus
expiated. Thus, in A.D. 350, Aganoko, suzerain of the Saegi, being
convicted of purloining jewels from the person of a princess whom he
had been ordered to execute, escaped capital punishment only by
surrender