This system was altogether too democratic for Japan’s clan society,
with its emphasis on aristocratic lineage. At the very outset it was
drastically modified. Training schools were set up, but only nobles
of a certain rank could enter them. These persons alone could take
the examinations, and qualify for high office. After a time, even the
examinations were discontinued. Important government posts soon became
hereditary again. Lower posts in the provinces were usually taken by
local leaders, instead of officers sent by the Imperial government.
The higher provincial officials meanwhile stayed at court, and
delegated their powers to personal followers in the various localities.
A similar development took place in the case of the land reforms. The
land was “nationalized,” but it proved impossible to preserve the
public domain. The great estates of the clan leaders were returned
to them in payment for their official services, and then remained
hereditary. Powerful individuals encroached on the public lands, or
impoverished peasants escaped tax exactions by joining their lands to
privately owned manors, and becoming serfs. In practice, the public
domain was gradually taken over by private families, the court nobility
or the great monasteries.