Japan's history, social structure and socio-cultural background, compared to Europe, seen and experienced through the eyes of a Daimyo Lord family for more than 2,650+ years
Politics, power struggles, Kuge, Genro, Shin Meiji nobility – how could it happen?
The Kuge noble families are considered the emperor's court officials, and therefore have a secondary role in Japan's history for the last 1200 years. Before that, they had a big role to play.
Basically, after 1185 they got a lot of high but very empty court titles from the emperor; The Emperor's Prime Minister, Council of Ministers, officials, governors, etc. But the facts were that the titles were really completely empty, as it was the Shogun - the King and all his Daimyo fiefs who had all the power and the land of Japan. Roughly speaking, it can be compared to the Kuge titles having as much power as you played Matador or Counter Strike on your computer, - so this is not reality.
But this unreality with empty titles, intrigue and lack of power, was rewarded as it WAS the reality when the Shin Meiji nobility titles had to be handed out! Squarely, no Kuge nobles had accomplished anything of great importance to Japan in at least 650 years, and no Japanese had seen them or the Emperor in 650+ years. So what was the result in 1884?
They were rewarded for that! They became dukes, marquises and counts, and enjoyed lightning-fast promotions in the nobility calendar.
The daimyo sheriffs who had done all the work for the last 650+ years were punished for this reality, so basically they could be appointed Marquesses at most, - with a cat's limb, if they belonged to one of the "Semi-Divine" lineages, they could are appointed dukes.
That was Genro's political logic and therefore it also ended with approx. 50 % of all Shin Meiji nobility titles in 1944 had been awarded to the "friends through the ages" who had never belonged to the Kazoku high nobility in 1869 or before this.
The streetscape changes in the Meiji period
It was nepotism of unprecedented dimensions in Japan's 2650+ year history.
The Shin (new) Meiji nobles are therefore passed over in silence and no one really knows who they are. They also keep a very low profile themselves, as they do not consider themselves to be "real nobles", despite fine Shin Meiji titles such as Duke, Marquis, Count, Viscount and Baron.
It is normal in Japan for a Shin Meiji Duke or Marquis to have a significantly lower status and rank than a Daimyo Count with a Shin Meiji title of e.g. Baron or Viscount.
This especially, if the Daimyo Count was originally the Daimyo of the Shin Meiji Duke's family before 1868, then it was down to "Seiza and hands on the floor, trembling and submission!". Why? Because there is a very big difference between having a long family history that has contributed to Japan's history and the opposite.
The new Shin Meiji nobles know this well. After all, there is a difference between 16 years, 63 years, 500 years, 800 years, 1200 years or up to 2600+ years of history. It doesn't matter where it is in the world.
In addition, the Meiji "age of enlightenment" (1868-1912) was actually a democratic step backwards in many areas, as people embraced the Victorian period and groped their way.
It was misogynistic and condescending and deprived women of the "right to vote", and the free elections from 1890-1920 actually amounted to between 1-6 % of the Japanese population entitled to vote according to annual earnings, of which up to 25 % were the former Shizoku - samurai class.
This was now also the case in many European and Western countries, but the new power elite in the name of the "Meiji Emperor" distributed itself and ruled Japan through the Emperor's Council of Ministers Genro of 9 members.
They were 4 from the Choshu Sheriff Domain from the southernmost province on Honshu, 4 from the Satsuma Sheriff Domain on Kyushu and Emperor Meiji's childhood friend from Kuge, court nobility.
No one had political experience or management experience above "local office manager", and now they really ruled Japan and called themselves; "Japan's Founding Fathers".
Emperor Meiji meets France in 1884
