kageyushi, in early Japan, a central government function, established at the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), to audit the accounts of local administrators who were retiring from office. Instituted to compensate for weaknesses in the earlier system of starting and terminating official appointments, the kageyushi in the 9th century became the single, if only partially effective, means of extending the power of the central government to the provinces. However, thereafter its control declined, along with that of central authority during the rest of the period.