The ''Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary'', Kenkyusha Limited, was a government position in

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 ...

during the Asuka to

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, 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 feu ...

. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the initial appearance of the ''Sadaijin'' in the context of a central administrative body called the . This early ''Daijō-kan'' was composed of the three ministers—the , the ''Sadaijin'' and the .Hall, John Whitney ''et al.'' (1993)
''The Cambridge History of Japan'', p. 232.
/ref> The position was consolidated in the

Taihō Code The was an administrative reorganisation enacted in 703 in Japan, at the end of the Asuka period. It was historically one of the . It was compiled at the direction of Prince Osakabe, Fujiwara no Fuhito and Awata no Mahito. Nussbaum, Louis- ...

of 702. When the Emperor and the nobility held real power, the ''Sadaijin'' was the highest permanent position in the ''Daijō-kan'', the central organ of the state. The higher-ranking Daijō-daijin'' was not a permanent position, but was only appointed when a suitable person was found.左大臣.
Kotobank The ''Sadaijin'' was the Senior Minister of State, overseeing all functions of government with the ''Udaijin'' as his deputy.''Shin-meikai-kokugo-jiten'',Sanseido Co., Ltd. Tokyo 1974 During the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

(794-1185), from the middle of the 9th century, the

Fujiwara clan The was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

began to marry off their daughters to the emperor and assume the positions of and , thereby excluding other clans from the political centre and increasing their political power. From the 10th century, the Fujiwara clan monopolised the positions of ''Sesshō'' and ''Kampaku''. However, at the end of the 10th century, Fujiwara no Michinaga, who established the heyday of the Fujiwara clan became ''Sadaijin'', a position of real power, rather than ''Kampaku'', the highest nominal position. The duties of the ''Sesshō'' and ''Kampaku'' were to convey to the emperor the policies formulated by the ''Sadaijin'' and other senior officials of the ''Daijō-kan'', and to convey the emperor's decisions to them. As regents of the emperor, the ''Sesshō'' and ''Kampaku'' sometimes made decisions on behalf of the emperor, but their positions were not defined by law and they had no specific political authority. The ''Sadaijin'', on the other hand, was the highest permanent position in the ''Daijō-kan'', the country's highest authority for planning and deciding important political matters, which is why Michinaga chose the ''Sadaijin''. From the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

(1185-1333), when the warrior class came to power in Japan, this government position became an honorary position with no real authority. At the time of

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

's appointment as ''Udaijin'' during the Azuchi-Momoyama period, the only members of the warrior class who had previously been appointed to imperial court posts higher than ''Udaijin'' were Taira no Kiyomori and Ashikaga Yoshimitsu as ''Daijō-daijin'' and Ashikaga Yoshinori and Ashikaga Yoshimasa as ''Sadaijin''.

References

. * Screech, Timon. (2006). ''Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822.'' London: RoutledgeCurzon. * Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652">Hayashi_Gahō.html" ;"title="iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō">iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652 ''Nipon o daï itsi ran">Hayashi Gahō">iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652">Hayashi_Gahō.html" ;"title="iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō">iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652 ''Nipon o daï itsi ran''; ou
''Annales des empereurs du Japon.''
Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. * Varley, H. Paul, ed. (1980). [Kitabatake Chikafusa, 1359], ''Jinnō Shōtōki ("A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa" translated by H. Paul Varley).'' New York: Columbia University Press. {{ISBN, 0-231-04940-4 Government of feudal Japan Japanese historical terms Meiji Restoration

See also

References

Further reading