even more powerful. However, in response to the rising power of the kokushi, the district governors and commoners began fighting against the kokushi. Due to the ever strengthening resistance, the kokushi returned to the safety of the central government in Kyoto and appointed an acting governor (mokudai), the daikan of the kokushi, who governed the province locally while the kokushi took the role of a supervisor. Following the establishment of local governments (rusudokoro) of the mokudai and the installation of provincial fiefdoms (chigyōkoku), the kokushi became a new category of manorial lords. As the Sesshō and Kampaku and Great Council Ministers were allowed to fill any vacant kami posts, and send their private deputies, the mokudai, to take care of the practical governing duties, the whole system of kokushi became increasingly corrupt. As the mokudai were also appointed from powerful local clans, the provincial government was drifting increasingly farther away from the central government in Kyoto. After the Heian period, the highest official, kami, became also known as zuryō (). The term originally meant the change of office to a newly assigned kokushi. In the Kamakura period, following the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, the samurai formed their own provincial government, the shugo who were appointed by the shogun in contrast to the kokushi who were appointed by the Imperial Court. The shugo gradually usurped power away from the kokushi, becoming the de facto governors while the kokushi remained the de jure governors, though powerless title holders in practice. Even after the abolishment of medieval manors, politically, the kokushi remained as an honorific title until Meiji Restoration in 1868. See also Shugo Provinces of Japan Daikan Jitō References Classical Japan