The Men Who Seized Taxes Instead of Minting Coins

The Storehouses and Seals of the Provincial Capital

In 939, a resident of Hitachi Province, Fujiwara no Haruaki, failed to pay his taxes. When the provincial governor issued an order for his arrest, Haruaki sought refuge with Taira no Masakado. The act of sheltering a single tax defaulter ignited a rebellion that would shake the Bandō region.

Masakado led a thousand soldiers to the provincial capital of Hitachi, defeated the three-thousand-strong provincial army, set fire to the capital, and seized the official seals. To seize the governor's seals and the keys to the storehouses was to take control of the province's tax administration. Military funds and provisions came from the *chōyō* and *shōzei* taxes stored in the *shōsō* and *fudōsō* (main and immovable) storehouses of the provincial government. The only comprehensive record detailing the events of this rebellion is the *Shōmonki*. However, it is believed to have been compiled between the early and late 11th century and is not a contemporary account.

A System for Not Paying to the Capital

After Hitachi, Masakado occupied the provincial capitals of Shimotsuke and Kōzuke one after another. In the twelfth month of 939, at the provincial capital of Kōzuke, he proclaimed himself the "New Emperor" (*Shinnō*). The *Shōmonki* relates that a shamaness, claiming to be a messenger of the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, bestowed upon him a certificate of rank. However, this scene is a narrative from the *Shōmonki*, and what actually occurred cannot be confirmed.

Masakado conducted his own appointment ceremonies (*jimoku*), naming his younger brothers and allies as provincial governors of the Bandō provinces. Appointing provincial governors meant distributing the authority to collect taxes. What Masakado sought to create in the Bandō region was a tax collection system that did not remit revenues to the capital. The real wealth of the Bandō region consisted of pastures for raising horses, developed private rice paddies, and the storehouses of each province's government office. Even this man who declared himself the head of a new state shows no evidence of having minted his own coins.

Taxes Seized from the Sea

At the same time, in the western seas, Fujiwara no Sumitomo was leading his own forces. There are stories that Masakado and Sumitomo conspired together, but there is no evidence of this in historical sources. What Sumitomo attacked were the ships sailing through the Seto Inland Sea, the main artery for transporting the *chō* and *yō* taxes from the western provinces to the capital. The state taxes being transported were the target itself. In 939, he attacked the provincial capitals of Awaji and Sanuki, and in the fifth month of 941, he invaded from Hakata Bay and captured the Dazaifu government headquarters.

The Imperial Court first attempted to appease Sumitomo by granting him the court rank of Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade. For a state without coinage, the means of negotiation was to distribute court ranks. Even without coinage, wealth could be seized. The thirty-one articles of impeachment filed in 988 against Fujiwara no Motonaga, the governor of Owari, listed offenses such as harsh collection of *suiko* (government loans of rice) and falsification of tax ledgers. As this was a document from the accusers, it cannot be taken as established fact, but it illustrates that seizing goods in kind was often easier.

The Right to Collect Taxes as Reward

Roughly two months after proclaiming himself New Emperor, on the fourteenth day of the second month of 940, Masakado was defeated and killed by the forces of Fujiwara no Hidesato and Taira no Sadamori. The rewards for those who suppressed the rebellion were neither coinage nor land.

In the third month of 940, for his merit in defeating Masakado, Fujiwara no Hidesato was promoted to the Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, and in the eleventh month of the same year, he was appointed Governor of Shimotsuke. Taira no Sadamori was promoted to the Junior Fifth Rank, Upper Grade, and later held positions such as *Chinjufu Shōgun* and Governor of Mutsu. The rewards were court rank and appointment as a provincial governor. The appointment as a provincial governor was the right to collect taxes itself. The victors received the right to collect taxes as their reward and used it as capital to build their local power base. In a country without coinage, rewards could only be paid in the form of rights to take. And once given, the right to take is permanently lost from the hands of the giver.