As suggested here, jitō occupied a place of critical importance during
this formative period. From 1185, the Bakufu awarded jitō shiki to
deserving vassals, who were then obliged to discharge administrative
duties on behalf of courtier or religious landlords. In return for these
services, jitō received both authority and various perquisites, such as
income and residence lands. But jitō were also immune from the dis-
ciplinary authority of estate (shōen) proprietors, creating a potentially
precarious situation. The Bakufu, seeking to balance these competing
interests, accepted for adjudication charges lodged against its own jitō,
since to have done otherwise would have been to sanction a resort to
lawlessness. This nonpartisan orientation remained the foundation of
Kamakura's governance throughout the thirteenth century.

A major turning point in the development of warrior government was
the Jōkyū War of 1221, arguably the most important event of the
Kamakura age. This war influenced not only the country's bipolar
administrative structure, but also the Bakufu's judicial machinery, here-
tofore fully functioning, but without decisive definition. To view the Jōkyū
War simply as a clash between Kamakura and Kyoto, as traditional
accounts have tended to do, is in fact to miss much of its significance. The
displacement of western-province warriors by easterners and the eclipse of
the imperial house by rival elements within the landowning elite indicate
that the war was both more complex and more interesting than previously
imagined. The background, nature, and consequences of the Jōkyū War
provide the setting for an understanding of the administrative and judicial
developments of the era, and are thus the focus of Part One (Chapters One
and Two) of this book.

Part Two (Chapters Three through Six) concentrates on the evolution of
Kamakura's judicial system from its beginnings to 1250. The study of pre-
1221 Bakufu justice, presented in Chapter Three, makes readily apparent
the continuity of the system as well as the inherent flexibility and
practicality of its approach. Even before the Jōyū War, Kamakura justice
was characterized by its willingness to seek and conform to local pre-
cedents, often without regard to its own political advantage. During the
post-Jōkyū era, Kamakura's increased power and prestige brought added
responsibilities, setting the stage for the emergence of legal arbitration as
the true centerpiece of warrior government. Chapter Four takes up these
later developments, and also examines the Bakufu under the postwar
leadership of the Hōjō.

Chapter Five describes the mechanics of the judicial process itself. How
were suits brought, expedited, and resolved? And why have scholars in
Japan pointed to the resulting system as one of their country's outstanding

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