The lowest in the scale of the military regime was the group of _ashigaru_, that is to say, of the light infantry. Those who belonged to this group, though wearers of two swords, were not counted as of the corps of _samurai_. Being legally vassals of a _daimyo_, they had yet very rare chances of serving him directly, and often they enlisted into the household service of a higher _samurai_. Between the _ashigaru_ and the regular _samurai_, there was another intermediate group of two-sworded men, called _kachi_, which means warriors-on-foot. In feudal times all warriors, if of _samurai_ rank, were presumed to be cavaliers, though in reality most of them had not even a stable, and skill in horsemanship was not rigorously required from the _samurai_ of the lower class. The name _kachi_, given to those who in rank came next to the _samurai_, implied that this intermediate group of quasi-_samurai_ was not allowed to ride on horse-back. This group was, however, much nearer to the _samurai_ than to the _ashigaru_ group. So far I have given a rough sketch of the gradations in the military regime in the territory of a _daimyo_. It should be here noticed that, besides the classes above stated, there were many other minor groups below the regular _samurai_, and that there were also diverse heterogeneities of system in the territories of different _daimyo_. Needless to say that the gradations and kinds of _hatamoto_, who were _samurai_ serving directly under the Shogun, were far more multifarious and complex than those of the _samurai_ under a _daimyo_. There is no doubt, however, that the apex of the whole military regime was the Shogun himself, while at its foundation were the sundry _samurai_ who numbered perhaps nearly half a million families in all. All the lands of Japan were not allotted exhaustively to the _daimyo_ by the Shogunate. On the contrary, immense territories in various parts of the empire, amounting to four millions of _koku_, were reserved to the Shogun himself. Important sea-ports, such as Nagasaki, Sakai, and Niigata, rich mines like those in the province of Iwami and in the island of Sado, the vast forest of Kiso in the province of Shinano, and so forth, were kept in the hands of the Shogunate, out of economical as well as political reasons. With the income from all these agricultural and industrial resources, the Shogunate defrayed all the governmental charges and the expenses of national defence, as well as the enormous civil list of the Shogun himself, who maintained a very luxurious court. The stipend for the lower class of _hatamoto_, who had no land allotted to them, was paid also with the rice raised in the Shogun's domain or bought with his money and stored in Yedo. As to the fiscal system and the direct domain of a _daimyo_ in his territory, it is needless to say that everywhere the imitation of that of the Shogun prevailed, conducted only on a smaller scale.