Daijokanpu (太政官符)
Daijokanpu (also known as Dajokanpu) were official documents issued by Daijokan (Grand Council of State) to lower agencies and Kokuga (local offices of the state) under the Ritsuyo system (ancient government system). It was also called Kanpu (official documents). Pu (符, also referred as fu) originally indicated the documents of orders and instructions that government agencies gave to their lower rank agencies, which meant that any agencies, including Daijokan, were able to issue it, but because Daijokan, in principle, was able to issue it to all the other agencies and the important laws like Kyakushiki (supplementary laws of Ritsuryo code) were sometimes issued in the form of Daijokanpu, it was taken very seriously.
These documents were sent to the agencies and Kokuga and became practically effective. For example, during the Heian period Daijokanpu and Minbushofu (official documents issued by Minbusho [Ministry of Popular Affairs]) was needed to get approval to establish a new Shoen (manor) and these manors were called Kanshofu no sho (government-approved manors).
History
Under the Ritsuryo system, in principal, the drafts of government official documents were approved by the emperor or Daijokan Conference (also referred as Giseikan [top bureaucrats] or Kugyo [court nobles] Conference), then the document was produced by Benkankyoku (the agency that directly belonged to Daijokan) and were delivered to central agencies and local government offices. During the early period under the Ritsuryo system, it is considered that Daijokanpu was issued in accordance with the principles following the decision of the Giseikan Conference, but in the middle of the Heian period, Daijokanpu came to be issued based on Jin no Sadame (one of the Imperial conferences) hosted by Shokei (court novels who work at Imperial Court as high rank post) (the top official of Daijokan).
In the late Heian period, Kansenji (simplified Kanpu) and Inzen (decree of cloistered government) under Insei (the cloistered government) became popular and Kanpu fell into disuse.