The gradual decline of Chinese political institutions at the capital and the weakening of the central government’s control over the provinces have made the period of Fujiwara supremacy appear to be one of unmitigated political decline. In reality the political decay at court was more than offset by the rapid growth of the once backward provincials in political experience and in general sophistication. During the height of the Chinese period they had participated but little in the brilliant culture transplanted from T’ang to the capital district, and they had been completely overshadowed by the noble families at court, but at the same time they were slowly absorbing much of the basic knowledge and many of the essential skills of the continental civilization. By the tenth and eleventh centuries they had reached a stage of cultural development which permitted them to start laying the broad foundations of a new society and a new political structure, entirely independent of the old patterns established by the court.
The central figure in this new society, as in the earlier clan society of the provinces, was the aristocratic fighting man on horseback. In ancient times he had been the soldier leader of the clan. Now he was the manager of a tax-free estate, defending his lands from marauders by his skill as a horseman and his prowess with the bow and sword. He had become a knight, resembling to a surprising degree his counterpart in the early feudal society of Europe.
Individual knights usually owed allegiance to court families or central monasteries which were the nominal owners of their estates, but this relationship, which had been the outgrowth of an early need for protection