Kazoku

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The Kazoku ( Japanese 華 族 , literally: "splendid families") was the hereditary nobility of Japan , who existed from 1869 to 1947 .

In 1869, as part of their western reforms, the Meiji oligarchy merged the kuge (court nobility) with the daimyō (feudal lords) into a single common nobility class. Itō Hirobumi , one of the leading figures of the Meiji Restoration and later lead author of the Meiji Constitution , intended that the Kazoku should serve as a political and social bulwark for the "restored" imperial dignity and imperial Japanese institutions.

In addition to the existing Japanese nobility, the Meiji leadership rewarded those with Kazoku status who had rendered outstanding service to the country. In 1884 the government went a step further by dividing the kazoku into five levels based on the British peerage system . This system used titles derived from the ancient Chinese nobility system , which happened to also have five titles:

  1. Kōshaku ( 公爵 , duke , prince )
  2. Kōshaku ( 侯爵 , margrave )
  3. Hakushaku ( 伯爵 , count )
  4. Shishaku ( 子爵 , vice count )
  5. Danshaku ( 男爵 , baron )

As in the British peer nobility, only the actual holder of the title and his wife were considered a kazoku. The holders of the two top titles, Prince / Duke and Margrave, automatically became members of the manor in the event of succession or promotion (for nobles who previously had subordinate titles) . Counts, vice counts and barons elected up to 150 representatives from their ranks in the manor house.

Titles were passed on after primogeniture , although kazoku houses often adopted sons from off-branches of their home or other kazoku houses to prevent their lineage from becoming extinct. An addition of 1904 to the Imperial Family Act passed in 1889 allowed the lower princes (Ō) of the Imperial Family to waive their Imperial status in order to become a Kazoku nobleman or heir to a childless Kazoku noble.

Originally there were 509 Kazoku nobles (11 princes / dukes, 24 margraves, 76 counts, 324 vice counts and 74 barons). By 1928 their number had increased to 954 through promotion and creation (18 princes / dukes, 40 margraves, 108 counts, 379 vice counts and 409 barons).

The award of the nobility titles for Kazoku houses from Kuge origin depended on the highest possible office with which the ancestors were entrusted in the imperial court. Accordingly, the heirs of the five regent houses ( 五 摂 家 go- sekke ) of the Fujiwara dynasty ( Konoe , Takatsukasa , Kujō , Ichijō and Nijō ) were all princes, as well as the Iwakura . The heads of the other Kuge houses ( Daigo , Hamuro , Hirohata , Kazan'in , Kikutei , Kuga , Nakamikado , Nakayama , Oinomikado , Saga , Sanjō , Saionji , Shijō and Tokudaiji ) became margraves. The head of the Sho family, the former royal family of the Ryūkyū Islands ( Okinawa ), was also given the title of margrave.

With the exception of the earlier Shogun family Tokugawa as well as the Mōri (from Chōshū ) and Shimazu (from Satsuma ) families, who were significantly involved in the Meiji Restoration , who also became princes, the award of the titles to the earlier daimyō depended on their travel income: That from 150,000  Koku became margraves, from 50,000 Koku counts etc. The former Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu became prince, the heads of the most important main branches ( Shimpan-Daimyō ) margraves and the heads of the secondary branches counts.

The Japanese Constitution of 1946 abolished the kazoku and all titles of nobility outside the imperial family. Since there was - except in the Heian period - no "von" (Japanese no ), former nobles rarely differ by their name. Exceptions are e.g. B. Matsudaira / Tokugawa , Madenokōji, Mushanokōji (former court nobility). Even after the abolition, the former Kazoku families continue to hold important positions in Japanese society and industry. Former Kazoku have formed an association called Kasumikaikan . The association has its rooms in the Kasumigaseki building.

literature

  • Takie Sugiyama Lebra: Above the Clouds. Status Culture of the modern Japanese Nobility. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1993, ISBN 0-520-07600-1 .
  • Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi: Imperial Sovereignty in Early Modern Japan. In: Journal of Japanese Studies . Vol. 17, No. 1, 1991, pp. 25-57.

Web links

Commons : Kazoku  - collection of images, videos and audio files