Starting in the mid-Heian period, "Bunkoku" also appears in the term "ingu gobunkoku," which refers to the province-sized territories controlled by the Retired Emperors, the Cloistered Emperors, and the Imperial Family, as well as in the term "kanto gobunkoku," referring to the bloc of provinces MINAMOTO no Yoritomo controlled in the Kanto (eastern Japan); starting in the period of Northern and Southern Courts (Japan), "bunkoku" was additionally used to describe the provinces controlled as feudal domains by the shugo daimyo (shugo, which were Japanese provincial military governors, that became daimyo, which were Japanese feudal lords).
平安時代中期以降の太上天皇や法皇、皇族の所領となった院宮御分国、源頼朝の知行国である関東御分国、南北朝時代(日本)以降の守護大名の知行した領国などが当たる。