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The Daij�-kan (太政官, Daij�-kan^?) was the Department of State in Nara and Heian period Japan and briefly under the Meiji Constitution.

Initially created by the Code of Taih� (大�律令) in 701, this Imperial governing structure was headed by the Great Council of State -- the Daij�-kan. This council and its subsidiary ministries handled all secular administrative affairs of the country, while the Jingi-kan (神祇官) or Department of Worship, oversaw all matters regarding Shint� (神�) ritual, clergy, and shrines.

This structured organization gradually lost power over the course of the 10th and 11th centuries, as the Fujiwara clan, dominating the post of Imperial regent, began to dominate the Daij�-kan as well. It became increasingly common for the regent to hold the post of chancellor or other office simultaneously. By the 12th century, the council was essentially powerless as a separate entity, though it seems clear that the system was never formally dismantled. Over the course of centuries, the ritsury� state produced more and more information which was carefully archived; however, with the passage of time in the Heian period, ritsury� institutions evolved into a political and cultural system without feedback.

By the time of Emperor Komei, the kuge aristocracy were joined in common goals by a number of newly powerful provincial figures from outside Kyoto. Together, this tenuous, undefined coalition of men worked together to restore the long latent prestige, persuasive power, and active strengths of a re-invigorated Imperial center. This combination of factors thrust an archaic hierarchy into the center of national attention, but with so many other high-priority matters demanding immediate attention, there was little time or energy to invest in reforming or re-organizing the Daij�-kan.

Ritsury� organization and hierarchy

The eighth century ritsury� innovations would proved to be remarkably durable and resilient across the span of centuries.

Any exercise of meaningful powers of court officials reached its nadir during the years of the Tokugawa shogunate, and yet the Daij�-kan did manage to persist intact through the initial years of the Meiji Restoration. It is not possible to evaluate any individual office without assessing its role in the context of a durable yet flexible network and hierarchy of functionaries.

Read more at Wikipedia.org