--'Very well,' I answered, 'under the ancient Imperial régime, local governors were despatched from the central government. Imperial guards were taken from amongst the provincial youth, there were also several military stations, at different strategic points of the country; the soldiers having been similarly taken from the neighbouring provinces. In the course of time, first with the growth of luxury in the capital, then with the decay of the Imperial authority, the governors themselves ceased to go to their respective provinces, and deputies came to be appointed to discharge their provincial affairs for them. These deputies began to settle in the provinces and to make their functions hereditary, or local celebrities came to be appointed as deputies, often by heredity also. In the meantime, as I told you once before, a sort of hereditary warrior families gradually sprang up in the provinces. The more enfeebled the Imperial court became, the less effective the administrative authority of the Imperial government became in the distant provinces, where fighting between those warrior families was often waged without any knowledge or any recognition of the Imperial government. When, towards the end of the twelfth century, Yoritomo defeated his foes, the Taira, and made himself master of the situation, he established his seat of government at Kamakura, and began to control the whole empire. At first he did so on the pretext of keeping peace and order with Imperial sanction. He called himself, in that respect, Sotsuibushi, which means nothing else than police-master-general. He appointed new local governors, chiefly from amongst the leaders of the warrior families. The official names for these new governors differed from those instituted formerly by the Imperial government. He did not try to do away with the Imperial official organisation, which had become almost nominal, but, in fact, he introduced a new organisation in the provinces. Needless to say, these new governors soon became the real governors in all respects, though their ostensible duties at first were for police affairs in its broad sense. This was the beginning of our system of the military governments. Although there were several vicissitudes, that system in the main lasted down to the great reform of our own days. This period of the system of military power is the period called by the writers in the Western languages the "feudal period," and the system is called the "feudal system." There was, of course, much resemblance in customs and manners, and even institutions, between the European feudal system and our military system, but I do not think the words themselves convey exactly the meaning of our appellation for the system. We call the system "Hoken," which was originally Chinese. That term, which is a combination of two words, means to "create and install" and signifies an act by which some particular person is created a hereditary prince of certain districts.