Iken junikajo (意見十二箇条)
Iken junikajo (twelve opinions) was the written statement on politics that Kiyoyuki MIYOSHI, a scholar of Chinese classics in the mid Heian period, submitted to Emperor Daigo in 914. It is also known as Miyoshi no Kiyoyuki Iken Fuji Junikajo or Ikenfuji junikajo.
Details leading up to submission
Conditions of the land at the time
In the early tenth century when Kiyoyuki MIYOSHI submitted this statement, the land in Japan was in a dire condition. False registering was rampant, and with the increase of owners of kubunden (rice fields given to each farmer in the Ritsuryo system) who falsely registered themselves as women, revenue from rice tax dropped. In addition, lands of absentee owners due to vagrancy and getaway transformed into shoen (manor in medieval Japan) and koryo (an Imperial demesne) that belonged to temples, shrines and the influential nobility, and thus accelerated the decrease of the central government's financial resources. Consequently, Handen Shuju (a regulation of land ownership) was not conducted after the one in 902, and although Emperor Daigo regulated shoen himself, he could not bring results.
Submission of Iken junikajo
Therefore, Kiyoyuki MIYOSHI submitted his written statement to Emperor Daigo.
In the statement, he pointed out the land issues described above and indicated that they disrupted the local politics. As a countermeasure, he recommended surveying the population of provinces again to properly allocate kubunden. He also recommended that the remaining land should be taken from kokushi (provincial governors) and owned by the government. He insisted that the government should make up for the deficit by leasing such lands and applying the jishi (profit from the land rent) to the land tax of absentee owner land.