eful legislation and organization. Heijo's abdication seems to
have been due to genuine solicitude for the good of the State, and
Saga's to a sense of reluctance to be outdone in magnanimity.
Reciprocity of moral obligation (giri) has been a canon of Japanese
conduct in all ages.

SANGI AND KURANDO

One of the earliest acts of Saga's reign was to establish the office
of Court councillor (sangi) definitely and to determine the number of
these officials at eight. The post of sangi had been instituted more
than a century previously, but its occupants had neither fixed
function, rank, nor number: they merely gave fortuitous advice about
political affairs. Another office, dating from the same time (810),
was that of kurando (called also kurodo). This seems to have been
mainly a product of the political situation. At the palace of the
retired Emperor in Nara--the Inchu, as it was called--the ambitious
Fujiwara Nakanari and the Imperial consort, Kusu, were arrogating a
large share of administrative and judicial business, and were
flagrantly abusing their usurped authority. Saga did not know whom to
trust. He feared that the council of State (Dajo-kwan) might include
some traitors to his cause, and he therefore instituted a special
office to be the depository of all secret documents, to adjudicate
suits at law, to promulgate Imperial rescripts and decrees, to act as
a kind of palace cabinet, and to have charge of all supplies for the
Court. Ultimately this last function became the most important of the
kurando's duties.

KEBIISHI AND TSUIHOSHI

It has already been explained that the Daiho legislators, at the
beginning of the eighth century, having enacted a code (ryo) and a
penal law (ritsu), supplemented these with a body of official rules
(kyaku) and operative regulations (shiki). The necessity of revising
these rules and regulations was appreciated by the Emperor Kwammu,
but he did not live to witness the completion of the work, which he
had entrusted to the sa-daijin, Fujiwara Uchimaro, and others. The
task was therefore re-approached by a committee of which the
dainagon, Fujiwara Fuyutsugu, was president, under orders from the
Emperor Saga. Ten volumes of the rules and forty of the regulations
were issued in 819, the former being a collection of all rescripts
and decrees issued since the first year of Daiho (701), and the
latter a synopsis of instructions given by various high officials and
proved by practice since t