Yoritomo, after confiscating estates in central and western Japan, appoints stewards for the estates and constables for the provinces.

As shogun, Yoritomo is both the steward and the constable general.

The Kamakura shogunate is not a national regime, however, and although it controls large tracts of land, there is strong resistance to the stewards.

The regime continues warfare against the Northern Fujiwara, but will never bring either the north or the west under complete military control.

However, the fourth leader of the Northern Fujiwara, Fujiwara no Yasuhira, is defeated by Yoritomo in 1189 and subsequently beheaded, and the one hundred-year long prosperity of the north disappears.

The old court resides in Kyoto, continuing to hold the land over which it has jurisdiction, while newly organized military families are attracted to Kamakura.