, spelled tycoon in English language sources from the 1860s, is an archaic Japanese term of respect. Its literal meaning is "Great Lord/Prince" or "Supreme Commander". In official documents, it was written . The term originally derived from the Chinese text ''

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...

''; in China it referred to an independent ruler who was not part of the imperial lineage. of Japan and unspecified predecessors are reported to have used the title 大和大君, "

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a Names of Japan, name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial ...

Taikun".

Abraham Lincoln to the Shogun of Japan 14 November 1861

During Japan's

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, in relations with foreign countries the term ''taikun'' was used as a diplomatic title designating the ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

'' of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. This was an attempt to convey that

foreign relations Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

were the responsibility of the ''shōgun'', not the

Emperor of Japan The emperor of Japan is the hereditary monarch and head of state of Japan. The emperor is defined by the Constitution of Japan as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, his position deriving from "the will of ...

. The term was first used for foreign relations by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

, in an attempt to extricate Japan from the Sino-centric system of

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

, which required diplomacy to follow the concept of emperor at home, king abroad. In diplomatic correspondence, the ''shōgun'' could not refer to himself as the , but he also could not use the term . Because formal language is extremely important in diplomacy, the connotations of most alternative terms were found to be inappropriate, so ''taikun'' was chosen to best represent the ''shōgun'' in formal diplomatic communications. Letter of Napoleon III to the Japanese Shogun to introduce Leon Roches in replacement of Duchesne de Bellecourt

Letter of Napoleon III to the Japanese Shogun to introduce Leon Roches in replacement of Duchesne de Bellecourt

The word has entered the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

as ''

tycoon A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

'', where it has assumed the meaning of "a person of great wealth, influence or power". The term is notable as a Japanese word in English that comes from a different meaning in

Japanese culture Japanese culture has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world. Since the Jomon period, ancestral ...

. Still, a "tycoon" is a person of great influence without formal title, whereas a "taikun" was a ruler without imperial lineage.

References

{{reflist Edo period Japanese honorifics Titles of national or ethnic leadership

See also

References