Finally, as to the central government, its ultimate control was vested in the hands of three principal officials, namely, the ministers of the left, of the right, and of the interior; but this organization subsequently underwent considerable modification. The eight departments of administration were Department of Records (_Nakatsukasa_), Department of Ceremonies (_Shikibu_), Department of Administration (_Jibu_), Department of Home Affairs (_Mimbu_), Department of Military Affairs (_Hyōbu_), Department of Justice (_Kyōbu_), Department of Finance (_Ōkura_), and Department of the Imperial Household (_Kunai_). Each was comprised of three bureaus, between which the functions of the department were distributed. Over and above the eight departments stood the two highest offices, grand council (_Daijō-kwan_) and religious rites (_Jingi-kwan_). The administrative organization having been thus determined, steps were taken to make suitable selection of _personnel_ for the various official posts, and in connection with this a body of rules was compiled, fixing the ranks of officials of all kinds. The system of selection by merit was in this manner substituted for that of hereditary succession. But the change did not find complete expression in practice, for noble families, though nominally deprived of exclusive official privileges, still benefited by the conservatism of custom. Various ranks of officials were minutely graded, and rigidly marked by means of the colors of garments and head-gear or by patents, but these insignia underwent subsequent changes in minor details. Such, in brief, were the principal features of the Taikwa reforms. The government, however, did not confine itself to the realm of enactment, for instructions of an admonitory character were issued with a view to improving the manners and customs of the agricultural classes. Diligence in the pursuit of their occupations, economy, integrity, exclusion of mercenary motives from contracts of marriage, simplicity of funeral rites, persistence in habits of industry even during periods of mourning--such were the virtues recommended to farmers by official proclamation. At the same time, in order to establish contact between the ruling classes and the ruled, boxes were set up at various places wherein the people were invited to deposit any statement of grievances from which they suffered, and it was provided that a man who desired to bring a complaint speedily to the notice of the authorities should ring a bell hung in a public building.