retold had not the
pirate chief's lieutenant gone over to the Imperial forces. Sumitomo,
after an obstinate resistance and after one signal success, was
finally routed and killed. Some historians* have contended that
Masakado and Sumitomo, when they were together in Kyoto, conspired a
simultaneous revolt in the east and the south; but such a conclusion
is inconsistent with the established fact that Masakado's treason was
not premeditated.

*Notably the authors of the Okagami and the Nihon Gwaishi.

That the two events synchronized is attributable wholly to the
conditions of the time. We have seen what was the state of affairs in
Kwanto, and that of Kyushu and Shikoku is clearly set forth in a
memorial presented (946) by Ono Yoshifuru on his return from the
Sumitomo campaign. In that document he says: "My information is that
those who pursue irregular courses are not necessarily sons of
provincial governors alone. Many others make lawless use of power and
authority; form confederacies; engage daily in military exercises;
collect and maintain men and horses under pretext of hunting game;
menace the district governors; plunder the common people; violate
their wives and daughters, and steal their beasts of burden and
employ them for their own purposes, thus interrupting agricultural
operations. Yesterday, they were outcasts, with barely sufficient
clothes to cover their nakedness; to-day, they ride on horseback and
don rich raiment. Meanwhile the country falls into a state of decay,
and the homesteads are desolate. My appeal is that, with the
exception of provincial governors' envoys, any who enter a province
at the head of parties carrying bows and arrows, intimidate the
inhabitants, and rob them of their property, shall be recognized as
common bandits and thrown into prison on apprehension."

In a word, the aristocratic officialdom in Kyoto, headed by the
Fujiwara, though holding all the high administrative posts, wielded
no real power outside the capital, nor were they competent to
preserve order even within its precincts, for the palace itself was
not secure against incendiarism and depredation. When the heads of
the Minamoto and the Taira families were appointed provincial
governors in the Kwanto, they trained their servants in the use of
arms, calling them iye-no-ko (house-boys) or rodo (retainers), and
other local magnates purchased freedom from molestation by doing
homage and obeying their behests. Taira Masakad