Japanese Ritsuryō Army System

Timeline

1. 701–718Heijō-kyō · Yamato ProvinceIn 701 CE the Taihō Code was promulgated, and the state conscripted soldiers by household rank, establishing capital guards and provincial gundan. Soldiers were mainly farmers serving in rotation, commanded in wartime by generals appointed by the court, forming the prototype of a ritsuryō army with central command and local organization.
2. 718–760Provincial military headquarters · JapanThe Yōrō Code further regulated gundan organization, military-agricultural colonies, and frontier defense duties. Gundan were set up in the Tōkaidō, Tōsandō, Hokurikudō and other circuits, each of about a thousand men, responsible for local security and assembling forces for frontier campaigns, linked with the sakimori and gunji systems.
3. 760–800Mutsu Province · Mutsu ProvinceIn the late 8th century expeditions against the Emishi of Mutsu became frequent, the conscription burden of the ritsuryō army grew heavier, and soldier desertion and the rise of local strongmen emerged as problems. After the capital moved to Heian-kyō in the Enryaku era, the gundan system still maintained frontier defense, but central direct control weakened, laying groundwork for the later rise of the samurai.