Kabane
Kabane ( Japanese 姓 ) were hereditary titles in historical Japan that defined rank and political location. There were 24 such titles in the original system, up from eight after the 684 reform.
Kabane of the old days
The Kabane are hereditary status titles that belonged to the uji (family associations, clans). These were labeled according to origin, property or profession. They were added to the family name or family name with no .
Uji were essentially widespread large families or groups that traced their origins back to the same person (including emperors) or kami , often with their own Uji-specific names, but all members wore the same kabane. The origins of this classification system go back to the early Japanese period (4th – 5th centuries). 24 different Kabane are known, although these were not specified in an exact order. Awarding (or increasing) took place by the ruler. Occasional awards were also made to deserving individuals. Overall, however, especially before the introduction of the court ranking system (based on the Chinese model), this system was too inflexible, as the granting of a Kabane was associated with privileges to the (sometimes very large) family associations that had certain hereditary functions at court. The clan chiefs controlled certain occupational groups ( guilds ) called -tomo or -be , which probably had a rear- seated status.
Some ranks:
- Omi ( 臣 ): court noblewoman of blood,
- Muraji ( 連 ): court nobles, descendants of the kami ,
- Miyatsuko ( 造 ): heads of professional groups, in the service of the Tennō
- Kuni no miyatsuko (国 造 ): head of a province
- Kimi ( 公 , kō ),
- Kimi ( 君 , kun ),
- Atai ( 値 ) (reading also atahi , atae )
- Fubito ( 史 ): scribe,
- Agatanushi (県 主 ): Country nobles entrusted with the administration of imperial goods,
- Suguri ( 村 主 ): village mayors , often immigrants.
Kabane from 684
Under Emperor Temmu, an 8-tier ranking system was established with an edict of 684/10/1 ( 八 色 の 姓 yakusa no kabane ; hasshō ). In the previous years, it had already begun to move individual Uji to the appropriate cabane. For example, Temmu-tennō 680/81 bestowed the title muraji on eighteen individuals from 14 clans . The old Kabane continued to exist, however, so no re-classification took place. This poses some mapping problems. In essence, most of the ancient kimi (公) were transferred to the highest class mahito ; omi , kimi (spelling kun ) to asomi. Many obito , miyatsuko , kishi , atahi , fuhito , agatanushi etc. in the new - in the lower rank - temporarily (680-1) to muraji , some of these then after 684 to sukune or imiki , mostly left in muraji . The "old" - higher standing - Muraji were mostly sukune. Many of the most influential Uji who traced their origins back to Kami (for which there is of course no historical evidence) also received the rank sukune . Awards of the lower four ranks are only recorded in the annals from the Mommu government (697–707).
In later times, imperial descendants, who were usually "sorted out" from the imperial family in the 5th generation, ie. H. they were given surnames to mahito . In summary, it can be said that the top two (new) ranks were reserved for descendants of the imperial house.
A systematic reclassification of all Uji did not take place. An exact breakdown of the genealogies took place in the Shinsen Shōjiroku of the ninth century, whereby the individual Uji were divided into three (rough) categories:
- such imperial blood ( 皇 別 , kobetsu ),
- Descendants of the kami ( 神 別 , shimbetsu ),
- Descendants of immigrants ( shoban ) or of an unspecified nature (immigrants here are those carriers of civilization arriving from the Korean peninsula who came after 450. The ruling clans that emerged from the invaders of 369 ( above all Soga , Ki , Kose , Heguri , Katsuragi ) were already Japanese at this point.)
Ranking: Yakusa no Kabane
- mabito ( 真人 ): 1st rank for imperial relatives (descendants of the 5th generation or later)
- ason / asomi ( 朝臣 ): 2nd rank, then for people from 5th (court) rank upwards as an honorable nickname. (Reading chōshin : German courtier )
- sukune ( 宿 禰 ): nobles from families of “divine” origin
- imiki ( 忌 寸 ): Foreign nobility (e.g. members of the royal family of Paekche , who fled to Wa (Japan) in 663-8 )
- michi no shi ( 道 師 ): for craftsmen, artists, etc., rarely awarded (reading dōshi : German Taoist , moralist ),
- omi ( 臣 ): (with reading: shin : German vassal, subject )
- muraji ( 連 ): (with reading: tsurete : German companion, friend, appendage )
- inaki ( 稲 置 ): lowest rank (literally: rice planter )
Later ranks were granted for deserving families by giving them the prefix O ( large ).
Later, when the clans separated more and more into separate families, the Kabans slowly fell out of use.
literature
The above statements assume that the Japanese imperial histories are viewed as "objective" sources of history.
- Richard Miller: Ancient Japanese Nobility. University of California Press 1974.
- Bruce Batten: Foreign Threat and Domestic Reform. In: Monumenta Nipponica . Volume 41, No. 2, 1986, pp. 199-219.
- On the development of surnames in the 8th century: Cornelius Kiley: A Note on the Last Names of Korean Immigrant Officials in Nara Japan. In: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Volume 29, 1969, pp. 177-189.
- Cornelius Kiley: Uji and Kabane in Ancient Japan. In: Monumenta Nipponica . Volume 32, pp. 365-376, 1977.