Kazoku

The Kazoku (華族, "Magnificent/Exalted lineage") was the hereditary

daimyō) and court nobles (kuge), but were abolished with the 1947 constitution.^[1]

Kazoku (

Origins

shogunate, and was President of the House of Peers from 1903-1933. A number of former samurai families became part of the kazoku during the Meiji era

.

Following the

Meiji government

nominated kuge to head all seven of the newly established administrative departments.

The

427 families

.

All members of the kazoku without an official government appointment in the provinces were initially obliged to reside in Tokyo. By the end of 1869, a pension system was adopted, which gradually displaced the kazoku from their posts as provincial governors and as government leaders. The stipends promised by the government were eventually replaced by government bonds.

Development

In 1884 the kazoku were reorganized and the old feudal titles were replaced with:^[1]

Prince, the equivalent of a European Duke (公爵, Kōshaku)
Marquess (侯爵, Kōshaku)
Count, the equivalent of an Earl (伯爵, Hakushaku)
Viscount (子爵, Shishaku)
Baron (男爵, Danshaku)

There were several categories within the kazoku. The initial rank distribution for kazoku houses of kuge descent depended on the highest possible office to which its ancestors had been entitled in the imperial court. Thus, the heirs of the five regent houses (go-sekke) of the Fujiwara dynasty (Konoe, Takatsukasa, Kujō, Ichijō and Nijō) all became princes, the equivalent of a European duke, upon the establishment of the kazoku in 1884.

The heads of eight other families (

Koga, Saionji, Tokudaiji, Ōinomikado and Kasannoin) all with the rank of seiga, the second rank in the kuge, became marquesses at the same time. Those family heads in the third tier of the kuge and with the rank of daijin became counts. Heads of families in the lowest three tiers (those in the ranks of urin, mei and han

) typically became viscounts, but could also be ennobled as counts.

Other appointments to the two highest ranks in the kazoku—prince and marquess—from among the kuge were also made to reward certain kuge families for their roles in the Meiji Restoration, for taking a prominent role in national affairs or for their close degree of relationship to the Imperial family. Thus the head of the seiga-ranked Sanjo house became a prince in 1884. The heads of the Tokudaiji and the Saionji houses were advanced to the rank of prince from the rank of marquess in 1911 and 1920, respectively.

In recognition of his father's role in the Meiji Restoration, Iwakura Tomosada, the heir of noble Iwakura Tomomi and whose family had been in the fourth tier of kuge nobility, with the rank of urin, was ennobled as a prince in 1884. Nakayama Tadayasu, the Meiji Emperor's maternal grandfather and also from an urin-ranked family, was ennobled as a marquess. The head of the

Okinawa), was given the title of marquess. When the Korean Empire was annexed in 1910, the House of Yi was mediatized

as an incorporated and therefore subordinate kingship (王).

Excluding the

shinpan

house was raised to the same rank, prince, in 1929.

Of the other former daimyō clans, the heads of the Mōri (Chōshū Domain) and Shimazu (Satsuma Domain) clans were both ennobled as princes in 1884 for their role in the Meiji Restoration; the Yamauchi (Tosa Domain) clan was given the rank of marquess. The heads of the main Asano (Hiroshima Domain), Ikeda (Okayama and Tottori Domains), Kuroda (Fukuoka Domain), Satake (Kubota Domain), Nabeshima (Saga Domain), Hachisuka (Tokushima Domain), Hosokawa (Kumamoto Domain) and Maeda (Kaga Domain) clans became marquesses in 1884.

Notably, the head of the main family line of the Date clan, which had formerly ruled the extensive Sendai Domain, was only ennobled as a count and was thus denied a hereditary seat in the House of Peers; this was likely due to the domain's prominent role as the leader of a coalition against the Imperial forces during the Boshin War. In 1891, the head of the Date-Uwajima family (Uwajima Domain), a cadet branch of the clan which had remained loyal to the Emperor during the conflict, was raised to the rank of marquess, having been ennobled as a count in 1884.

Many of those who had significant roles in the Meiji Restoration, or their heirs, were ennobled. Ito Hirobumi and

three great nobles of the Meiji Restoration, were ennobled as marquesses in 1884, followed by the heirs of samurai general-politician Saigō Takamori

in 1902.

Marquess Jūtoku Saigō, a member of the House of Peers (kazoku) and a colonel in the early Imperial Japanese Army, was a nephew of Saigō Takamori, one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration.

Succession and numbers

As in the British peerage, only the actual holder of a title and his consort were considered members of the kazoku. The holders of the top two ranks, prince and marquess, automatically became members of the House of Peers in the Diet of Japan upon their succession or upon majority (in the case of peers who were minors). Counts, viscounts and barons elected up to 150 representatives from their ranks to sit in the House of Peers.

Under the Peerage Act of 7 July 1884, pushed through by Home Minister and future first Prime Minister

British peerage, but with titles deriving from the ancient Chinese nobility

.

Usually, though not always, titles and hereditary financial stipends passed according to primogeniture. Unlike in European peerage systems, but following traditional Japanese custom, illegitimate sons could succeed to titles and estates. To prevent their lineages from dying out, heads of kazoku houses could (and frequently did) adopt sons from collateral branches of their own houses, whether in the male or female lines of descent, and from other kazoku houses whether related or not.

Unlike European custom, the adopted heir of a peer could succeed to a title ahead of a more senior heir in terms of primogeniture. A 1904 amendment to the 1889 Imperial Household Law allowed minor princes (ō) of the imperial family to renounce their imperial status and become peers (in their own right) or heirs to childless peers.

Initially there were 11 non-imperial princes, 24 marquesses, 76 counts, 324 viscounts and 74 barons, for a total of 509 peers.^[3]^: 391 By 1928, through promotions and new creations, there were a total of 954 peers: 18 non-imperial princes, 40 marquesses, 108 counts, 379 viscounts and 409 barons. The kazoku reached a peak of 1016 families in 1944.^[4]^: 1194

The 1947 Constitution of Japan abolished the kazoku and ended the use of all titles of nobility or rank outside the immediate Imperial Family. Since the end of the war, many descendants of the kazoku families continue to occupy prominent roles in Japanese society and industry.^[1]^[5]

The Kazoku Kaikan (華族会館), or Peers' Club, was the association of the high nobility. It had its headquarters in the Rokumeikan building. After 1947 it was renamed the Kasumi Kaikan (霞会館) and is located in the Kasumigaseki Building in Kasumigaseki.^[6]

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Kazoku - Japanese nobility". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Dec 21, 2016. Archived from the original on August 31, 2019.
^ Peter Francis Kornicki (1998). The emergence of the Meiji state.
^ Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan
^ Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan
^ Lebra, Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility.
^ Jordan, Mary (May 21, 1997). "The Last Retreat of Japan's Nobility". Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 9, 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2020 – via www.washingtonpost.com.