Sadaijin
Sadaijin ( Japanese 左 大臣 , historical Kun reading Hidari no Ohoimauchigimi or Hidari no Otodo ), mostly translated as "Chancellor on the left", was a government office in Japan during the late Nara and Heian periods . It was created in 702 by the Taihō Codex as part of the Daijō-kan structure.
The Sadaijin was the chief minister of state who oversaw all branches of the state ministry ( 太 政 官 , Daijō-kan ), which regulated all secular affairs of the empire. The Udaijin (Minister on the right) was his deputy.
In the system of Daijō-kan , the Sadaijin was in power and influence only under the Daijō Daijin (Grand Minister or Grand Chancellor). Often times, a member of the Fujiwara family held this influential position to justify and exercise that family's influence and power.
The Sadaijin gradually lost power with the entire Daijō-kan structure over the 10th and 11th centuries as the Fujiwara dominated politics more and more. The system was already powerless by the end of the 12th century when the warrior family of the Minamoto wrested control of the land from the court nobility ( Kuge ).
The only ceremonial Daijō-kan for centuries was revived for a short time at the beginning of the Meiji era before it was replaced by a modern administration based on the western model. The last Sadaijin was HRH Prince Arisugawa Taruhito until 1885, when the Meiji Emperor modernized the government and created the office of Prime Minister of Japan ( 内閣 総 理 大臣 , naikaku sōri daijin ) and officially abolished the title Sadaijin.
source
- Sansom, George: A History of Japan to 1334 . Stanford University Press, Stanford, California 1958