Power was in the hands of the land owners - A
Although, it's obvious that for Japanese feudalism it was not the same as for European feudalism in terms of laws, capabilities, rights and duties, the ones who owned the land still were the ones who had the most power.
The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Although there are no options provided, we can say that existence precedes essence because humans must first exist, incarnated, being a total corporeal human to then refer to an essence. This was an idea of French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.
According to Sartre, when a human being comes to existence, then he/she can reflect himself/herself trying to get its essence through its beliefs, contexts, and references. That is how humans become aware of their existence. Humans think and then exist, realizing its essence.
If I am correct it must be A: They left many records.