, or Defense Commissioner of the West, was the name given to a post created in 1186 to oversee the defense of Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

. At the time, the primary mission of the Bugyō was to seek out and eliminate anyone who had supported Minamoto no Yoshitsune

Minamoto no Yoshitsune

was a general of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura period. Yoshitsune was the ninth son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, and the third and final son and child that Yoshitomo would father with Tokiwa Gozen. Yoshitsune's older brother Minamoto no Yoritomo founded the Kamakura...

 over his brother Yoritomo

Minamoto no Yoritomo

was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan. He ruled from 1192 until 1199.-Early life and exile :Yoritomo was the third son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, heir of the Minamoto clan, and his official wife, a daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori, who was a member of the...

 to become Shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

. However, less than a hundred years later, the Chinzei (Western Defense Headquarters) took on the responsibilities of a true Defense Headquarters, acting as the first line of defense against the Mongols

Mongol invasions of Japan

The ' of 1274 and 1281 were major military efforts undertaken by Kublai Khan to conquer the Japanese islands after the submission of Goryeo to vassaldom. Despite their ultimate failure, the invasion attempts are of macrohistorical importance, because they set a limit on Mongol expansion, and rank...

. Over time, the position of Bugyō, the head of the Defense Headquarters, became known as Chinzei Shugo or Chinzei Tandai. This was but one of several similar posts established across the country.

The first Chinzei Bugyō was Amano Tōkage, who was succeeded soon afterwards by Nakawara Nobufusa, who was sent to suppress resistance in Kyūshū. He established the Chinzei at Dazaifu, where he received all the Shogun's orders for Kyūshū; local lords could not be trusted to obey local constables, and so the Kyūshū Tandai

Tandai

The term is a Kamakura and Muromachi period colloquialism for any very important governmental, judiciary or military post in a determinate area. During the Kamakura shogunate, examples of tandai in the east of the country were the shikken and the rensho, in the west of the country and in Kyūshū...

 (as the Chinzei Bugyō was sometimes known) had to act as intermediary between Kyūshū and the capital at Kamakura

Kamakura, Kanagawa

is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...

.