were powerful Japanese magnates,

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage ...

s who, from the 10th century to the early

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the

shogun , officially , was the title of the military dictators 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, though during part of the Kamakura ...

and nominally to the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

and the '' kuge''. In the term, means 'large', and stands for , meaning 'private land'. From the ''

shugo , commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The pos ...

'' of the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by ...

through the Sengoku to the ''daimyo'' of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of ''daimyo'' also varied considerably; while some ''daimyo'' clans, notably the Mōri, Shimazu and Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the ''kuge'', other ''daimyo'' were promoted from the ranks of the

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They ...

, notably during the Edo period. ''Daimyo'' often hired samurai to guard their land, and they paid the samurai in land or food as relatively few could afford to pay samurai in money. The ''daimyo'' era ended soon after the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

with the adoption of the prefecture system in 1871.

''Shugo-daimyo''

The were the first group of men to hold the title daimyo. They arose from among the ''

'' during the

(approximately 1336 – 1573). The ''shugo-daimyo'' held not only military and police powers, but also economic power within a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

. They accumulated these powers throughout the first decades of the Muromachi period. Major ''shugo-daimyo'' came from the Shiba, Hatakeyama, and Hosokawa clans, as well as the tozama clans of Yamana, Ōuchi, Takeda and Akamatsu. The greatest ruled multiple provinces. The Ashikaga shogunate required the ''shugo-daimyo'' to reside in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

, so they appointed relatives or retainers, called '' shugodai'', to represent them in their home provinces. Eventually, some of these in turn came to reside in Kyoto, appointing deputies in the provinces. The

Ōnin War The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. '' Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era during which the war started; the war ended during the Bun ...

was a major uprising in which ''shugo-daimyo'' fought each other. During this and other wars of the time, ''kuni

ikki Ikki may refer to: *''Ikki'', revolts against samurai rule in 15th and 16th century Japan **Ikkō-ikki, ''ikki'' revolts organized by Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists ***Kaga ikki, an ''Ikkō-ikki'' break-away warrior and peasant confederacy based in Kaga ...

'', or provincial uprisings, took place as locally powerful warriors sought independence from the ''shugo-daimyo''. The deputies of the ''shugo-daimyo'', living in the provinces, seized the opportunity to strengthen their position. At the end of the fifteenth century, those ''shugo-daimyo'' who succeeded remained in power. Those who had failed to exert control over their deputies fell from power and were replaced by a new class, the ''sengoku-daimyo'', who arose from the ranks of the ''shugodai'' and '' jizamurai''.

''Sengoku-daimyo''

Among the were many who had been ''shugo-daimyo'', such as the

Satake Satake may refer to: * Satake clan, a Japanese samurai clan originally from Hitachi Province * Satake Corporation, a multinational agricultural equipment maker based in Hiroshima, Japan *Asteroid 8194 Satake *Ichirō Satake (1927–2014), Japanes ...

, Imagawa, Takeda, Toki, Rokkaku, Ōuchi, and Shimazu. New to the ranks of the daimyo were the Asakura,

Amago Amago (尼子) is a Japanese word meaning "child of a nun", and has various other uses: People * Amago clan, a Japanese daimyō clan * Amago Haruhisa (1514–1561), Japanese daimyō * Amago Katsuhisa (1553–1578), Japanese daimyō * Amago Kunih ...

, Nagao, Miyoshi, Chōsokabe, Hatano, and Oda. These came from the ranks of the ''shugodai'' and their deputies. Additional ''sengoku-daimyo'' such as the Mōri, Tamura, and Ryūzōji arose from the ''jizamurai''. The lower officials of the shogunate and

rōnin A ''rōnin'' ( ; ja, 浪人, , meaning 'drifter' or 'wanderer') was a samurai without a lord or master during the feudal period of Japan (1185–1868). A samurai became masterless upon the death of his master or after the loss of his master' ...

( Late Hōjō,

Saitō Saitō, Saito, Saitou or Saitoh (written: or ) are the 20th and 21st most common Japanese surnames respectively. Less common variants are , , and . Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese sailor *, Japanese women's footballer *, Jap ...

), provincial officials (Kitabatake), and '' kuge'' (Tosa Ichijō) also gave rise to ''sengoku-daimyo''.

Edo period

The

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 ( Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

in 1600 marked the beginning of the

. ''

Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators 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, though during part of the Kamaku ...

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

reorganized roughly 200 daimyo and their territories into '' han,'' which were assessed by rice production. Those heading ''han'' assessed at 10,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'' (50,000 bushels) or more were considered daimyo. Ieyasu also categorized the daimyo according to their relation to the ruling Tokugawa family: the ''

shinpan was a class of ''daimyō'' in the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan who were certain relatives of the ''Shōgun''. While all ''shinpan'' were relatives of the ''shōgun'', not all relatives of the shōgun were ''shinpan''; an example of this is the M ...

'' were related to the Tokugawa; the '' fudai'' had been vassals of the Tokugawa or allies in battle; and the '' tozama'' had not allied with the Tokugawa before the battle (did not necessarily fight against the Tokugawa). The ''shinpan'' were collaterals of Ieyasu, such as the

Matsudaira The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of th ...

, or descendants of Ieyasu other than in the main line of succession. Several ''shinpan'', including the Tokugawa of Owari (

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

), Kii ( Wakayama), and

Mito Mito may refer to: Places *Mito, Ibaraki, capital city of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan *Mito, Aichi, a Japanese town *Mito, Shimane, a Japanese town * Mitō, Yamaguchi, a Japanese town * Mito District, a district in the province of Concepción, Per ...

, as well as the Matsudaira of Fukui and

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princi ...

, held large ''han''. A few ''fudai daimyo'', such as the Ii of Hikone, held large ''han,'' but many were small. The shogunate placed many ''fudai'' at strategic locations to guard the trade routes and the approaches to

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

. Also, many ''fudai daimyo'' took positions in the Edo shogunate, some rising to the position of '' rōjū.'' The fact that ''fudai daimyo'' could hold government positions, while ''tozama'' in general could not, was a main difference between the two. ''Tozama daimyo'' held mostly large fiefs far away from the capital, with e.g. the Kaga ''han'' of Ishikawa Prefecture, headed by the Maeda clan, assessed at 1,000,000 ''koku''. Other famous ''tozama'' clans included the

Mori Mori is a Japanese and Italian surname, and also a Persian pet name for Morteza. It is also the name of two clans in Japan, and one clan in India. Italian surname * Barbara Mori, Uruguayan-Mexican actress *Camilo Mori, Chilean painter * Cesa ...

of Chōshū, the Shimazu of Satsuma, the Date of Sendai, the Uesugi of Yonezawa, and the Hachisuka of Awa. Initially, the Tokugawa regarded them as potentially rebellious, but for most of the Edo period, marriages between the Tokugawa and the ''tozama'', as well as control policies such as '' sankin-kōtai'', resulted in peaceful relations. Daimyo were required to maintain residences in Edo as well as their fiefs, and to move periodically between Edo and their fiefs, typically spending alternate years in each place, in a practice called '' sankin-kōtai''.

After the Meiji Restoration

In 1869, the year after the Meiji Restoration, the daimyo, together with the ''kuge,'' formed a new aristocracy, the ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. They succeeded the feudal lords () and court nobles (), but were abolished with the 1947 constitution. Kazoku ( 華族) should not be confused with ...

''. In 1871, the han were abolished, and prefectures were established. In this year, around 200 daimyo returned their titles to the emperor, who consolidated their han into 75 prefectures. Their military forces were also demobilized, with the daimyo and their samurai followers pensioned into retirement. The move to abolish the feudal domains effectively ended the daimyo era in Japan. This was effectively carried out through the financial collapse of the feudal-domain governments, hampering their capability for resistance. In the wake of the changes, many daimyo remained in control of their lands, being appointed as prefectural governors; however, they were soon relieved of this duty and called en masse to Tokyo, thereby cutting off any independent base of power from which to potentially rebel. Despite this, members of former daimyo families remained prominent in government and society, and in some cases continue to remain prominent to the present day. For example, Morihiro Hosokawa, the former Prime Minister of Japan, is a descendant of the daimyo of Kumamoto.

References

External links