];servants and slaves [who being unfree and propertyless were untaxable]; bridges and roads, harbours, fences, bays, lakes, mountains, rivers, woods, and swamps etc.

The shōen system recognized private ownership of reclaimed rice-paddy lands, but did not automatically confer tax-exemption (as some misleading dictionary definitions suggest).

From the early Heian period, the tax-exempt or leniency status was ratified by the certificate or charter (kanshōfu (官省符)) issued either by this ministry or the Great Council (daijō-kan) itself.

[9][b] In the Jōgan (貞観) period (859–877) occurred a breakdown of the Ritsuryō system under the Fujiwara no Yoshifusa regime, with authorities of the ministries absorbed by the Great Council.

The Rinin (廩院) was an ancillary facility to this ministry that stored a portion of the corvée tax (yō of soyōchō) and nenryō shōmai (年料舂米, "yearly assessed polished rice"), which were distributed during ceremonies and functions.