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
Rise, fall and rise times of the Yamana-Itotani family with county areas; Outlines

The Emperor of Japan was not at all as wealthy as many of the Daimyo fiefs or the shogun family. There are actually examples of an emperor dying in the 16th century, but not being formally buried in a ceremony until 20 years later! The reason was that the Imperial House had no money because the Ashikaga Shogunate had arranged financial consequences due to the Imperial House's attitude to power distribution through intrigue, power politics and calls for rebellion! The Imperial House's financial situation became more stable under the Tokugawa Shogunate, who treated the Imperial House with respect and reverence after the agreement reached :-). This meant that the annual cost for the imperial house amounted to around 2.5-3 billion modern Danish kroner, plus the extra income the emperor could generate, so that his court nobility and the kuge county princes could get a civil servant's salary.

This chapter will tell about how the history of a Daimyo sheriff's family depended entirely on, success and failure, love and hate, loyalty and betrayal, leadership and politics, etc., on a great many other power relations and powerful persons, - both external and internal. As imperial princes, kuge lords and daimyo lords, the Yamana-Itotani family generally made wise and lucky choices until around the turn of the 16th century. These wise and fortunate choices meant that for more than 600 years, the family together for more than half of that time were princes of at least 10 provinces, or more than 1/6 of all Japan. But then new generations came along who were not as good top leaders as before, and it came to internal struggles in the family at the same time as external struggles, as this was the most violent period in Japan's history after the 1500s and the next 100 years. In the end, this meant a split of the family into two main branches, each with their own side branches, and instead of standing together, they fought each other instead!. They were not wise or logical at all as the family's got weaker and weaker and eventually so weak with their last 2-4 provinces that they were overcome by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi who subjugated all of Japan. Fortunately, both main families made the right choice again when they co-opted Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa Shogunate from 1600-1868. Here the Yamana-Itotani family functioned as Daimyo Counts under the Tokugugawa Shogun, as Ministers of Infrastructure, Kyoto and Osaka Governors, strategic and political advisers and after Meiji from 1868, as Governors, Generals, Admirals, top officials, politicians, landowners and businessmen. The family established a family branch in Denmark in 1957.

- Pay particular attention to the often drastic changes in the family names of the Daimyo sheriffs on the size of the sheriff areas in a positive or negative direction, but also how much the sheriff areas can change over a very short time. Sengoku Jidai was a time of fierce civil war - Who will be Shogun king!

The Yamana-Itotani family through the ages

Over the years, the Yamana-Itotani Daimyo Prince family has been on the modern communication platforms throughout the ages. At first it was hundreds of films, including famous film directors such as Akira Kurosawa, and George Lucas. Kurosawa's film and universe about Yamana's conquest of the Akizuki family's county area in the 1540s inspired George Lucas to create the Starwars films. Later it became a TV follow-up and this continues to apply, as Japan is once again finding its way back to the "Yamato spirit" after the Second World War. With the arrival of the Internet, the family is now also involved in several different and very popular computer games, such as Shogun 2: Total War. Only the imagination sets the limits here. Here are some examples of family characters in the games

The coat of arms of the Yamana-Itotani Daimyo Lord family for 2,650+ years

Kamons are the Japanese tradition of the corresponding heraldic tradition in Europe. Kamons or heraldry are originally the coats of arms of noble families, so it was easy to tell the difference for everyone. Both the Japanese and European heraldic coat of arms traditions were very similar until the 16th century – simple and easily recognizable from a distance, whether on the battlefield or during a festive banquet. After that they went in separate directions. The European one became very complicated, ostentatious and was only for the initiates who were trained in making and interpreting coats of arms. The titled nobility's coat of arms received noble crowns, orders of knighthood and up to 16 noble ancestors in the coat of arms and in addition also a motto. The Japanese continued with their modest traditional simplicity. In Europe until the 1900s, coats of arms were mainly reserved for the nobility or you had to have regulatory permission to do so. In Japan it was normal for everyone to have an insignia, but it was punishable to use the kamon coat of arms of noble families.

Knight of the Garter coat of arms examples;
Emperor of Japan, England and Spain King Philip II.

In Europe it was normal to have one coat of arms, which told everything about the wearer. In Japan it was normal for you to have one or more, depending on your social status. Lower ranking soldiers of samurai status had one kamon. Gokenin samurai officers of low rank, usually had up to two kamons. It was normal for titled high nobility to have three or more kamon coats of arms. The older the family, the more kamon coats of arms they had, as it could change in connection with the family's career success or failure in Japanese history. This also went hand in hand with Daimyo lords being able to reward loyal lords with glyphs from their own name or the highest honor, which was the permission for the additional use of one of the Daimyo Lord family's secondary or tertiary coats of arms.

There were two degrees of this honor and conferment of power; The additional use of kamon coat of arms and so the highest; the additional use of Daimyo lord family additional names. For the Yamana-Itotani family, this came from both the emperor and the shoguns; Minamoto, Ashikaga and Tokugawa. With Tokugawa, it was with the name Matsudaira and the Matsudaira kamon coat of arms, which thus says that you are "Extended family", which the families are. In 300 years there were 52 families who received this from the Tokugawa shoguns. It was the same with Ashikaga and the Emperor of Japan. The Coat of Arms of the Emperor of Japan, is the Emperor's secondary family and rank 1+ status coat of arms, and is today the symbol of the office of the Japanese Prime Minister. In 1,000 years, there are less than ten living family lines that have achieved this. Today, everyone in the world can use a coat of arms, as nobility today is mostly titular, as all privileges have been abolished. 

Yamana-Itotani Family Closer Family Relations – Blood or Adopted after year 1600+; Honke and Bunke families and their coat of arms

Yamana-Itotani Family Closer Family Relations – Blood or Adopted after year 1600+; Honke and Bunke families and their coat of arms

What other Daimyo lord families are the Yamana-Itotani primarily related to for more than 1300+ years?

Just as the European kings, emperors and princes needed allies to carry out their policies and ensure the survival of their dynasties, so of course it was also the case in Japan and the Far East. This is also the case today through the democratic political elections that are held in all democratic countries. There is just one very big and significant difference when a top political leader loses an election and when a princely dynasty is overthrown. The politicians get time to see the family, pursue hobbies and their other interests, and as the opposition they just have to remember to be against everything that the new democratically elected leaders propose, just like the others did when they were in power. It is a relatively harmless Polish game for all the "livelihood politicians", and for the politicians who are not this, they usually find another job that they can vouch for. 

If a princely house is overthrown, this usually results in death, destruction or, conversely, a reign of terror for them and their family. Most must live in fear in their exile - if they and their family, supporters and allies were allowed to survive with their lives intact. It is a significant and decisive difference for most people, almost the difference between video games and being in a real war. You can lose your life and everyone around you can lose their life as a sheriff. You don't do that as a politician. You know there will be a next time – a new choice and thus chance.

Therefore, it was paramount for a sheriff to ensure the survival of his family and those closest to him, and this required help in the form of strategic alliances, which were often extremely uncertain and changing, as this was often in the nature of declarations of intent. But if there were hostage exchanges between the parties, then there was a completely different risk for everyone and thus a greater incentive to comply with the agreement. But the best alliance guarantee was marriage with "production of children", which were, after all, the grandchildren of the sheriffs. These arranged marriages took place at all levels of society, but princely marriages were paramount to the whole society, and therefore one had to choose correctly in the divination ball. When a Daimyo lord family like the Yamana-Itotani has more than 2,650 years of history, including top positions in society such as emperors, imperial princes, lord kuges and Daimyo for almost 130 generations, - it goes without saying that a lot has been done alliances and marriages at the top of society. But it also says that when the family, as one of the few sheriff families, has survived for so many years, the choice of alliances, marriages, leadership has been extremely successful - but perhaps also lucky. 

For more than 1000 years, the Yamana-Itotani family has had thousands of estates, castles and castles. Here are some of them today

Before the Mongol invasion attempts in 1274 and 1281, Japanese fortified defenses had a temporary character, which also belonged to the "5-year rotation system" for the Daimyo fiefs, which the shoguns had implemented to secure their power. Like the temporary castles and fortresses of the Vikings and Romans, they consisted of a high earth rampart with a wooden palisade in front of a deep moat. Only from the middle of the thirteenth century, when the fief areas had begun to be inherited within the Daimyo fief princes, these began to build more permanent castles with higher and higher stone foundations, which had the function of strong stone walls. The building construction followed the threat picture. In Europe, ever since the Romans, powerful stone slings with stones weighing up to several hundred kilos had been used to break down the stone fortification walls of cities and castles. The Chinese Mongols had introduced these during the invasion attempts, but they had not been seen since, so there was no need to guard against these weapons. It was only from approx. 1543, when firearms and cannons were seriously introduced to Japan, which in this Sengoku-jidai period was almost in civil war between the Daimyo lords, who now functioned as lord kings. From this period, the castles and castles that most of us know today from Japan were built. More than 5,000 of these were built. The Tokugawa shogunate (1600-1868) decided that there could only be one main castle for each county area. A capital city could hold an army. As long as it could not accommodate an army, each Daimyo lord had to maintain "support fortress castles". This meant that there were approx. were 300 very ostentatious gigantic capital castles with castle towns, supplemented by approx. 5000 smaller fortress castles. In addition, there were the manors of the many estates, which were also more or less fortified. It is estimated that there were up to 9-10,000 of these, but castles and castles are also included in this number. Today in Japan, 50 % of all cities with over 100,000 inhabitants originate from the capital's castles. As Yamana-Itotani's varying career success over 1,000 years has ranged from less than 1 % to approx. 20 % of Japan, then the family has built and owned a corresponding percentage of the above figure. Today, the family still has a large agriculturally productive area with buildingsr

Takeda Castle built by Yamana Sozen in 1431

Watch the exciting video😊

End - Chapter 28

Game Education - Countess

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Game Education - SamuraiViking officers

SamuraiViking officers – As the general and military strategist Sun Tsu said; "He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight, and Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

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Association chairmen, chronologically since 1988

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