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
The power structure and the Meiji nobility 1884-1947 – how did it work in practice over time?
The warrior king Shogun was given by the emperor the power and right to collect all taxes in Japan, and to appoint and fire all Shugo Daimyo lords throughout Japan in 1185.
The emperor was de facto a shortbread figure for the next approx. 650 years of warrior king Shogun rule.
However, he retained the right to appoint and decide the imperial court etiquette, ceremonies and ranks, which the Tokugawa Shogunate however limited until 1868.
It subsequently had serious consequences for the Tokugawa and its vassals when Emperor Meiji and his Genro (Senior Council of Ministers) came to power.
Since the emperor's income was very limited and the emperor's expenses enormous, since he also had to receive all the expenses with his "employees"; Court nobility, then this meant quite quickly, at kuge court the nobles were given very high rank titles as compensation for lack of income, and they had to supplement their income, as teachers of high noble very wealthy students in calligraphy, music, poetry and other arts.
To avoid rebellion, the emperor had to assure the Kuge court nobility that they were "finer" than the mega rich and powerful warrior nobility including the warrior king Shogun!
It was a total distortion of reality of unreal proportions, but the emperor maintained this political consideration right up to the Meiji period, when all the princely families of the Kuge court were all given new shin-Meiji titles of nobility such as duke, marquis and count, even though most of them had little "butter for their bread" or had made a "footnote to the history of Japan".
But here they were helped by an imperial state pension salary.
Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu
But no Japanese had heard of them or knew them and therefore they got no respect and recognition either. Many therefore gave up their titles after finishing their service with the emperor and disappeared into oblivion again - albeit as untitled nobility.
Incidentally, this was also the case for the emperor himself. For 650 years it had been customary for the emperor to shut himself up in his palaces, as only those of rank had the opportunity to see him.
In fact, until 1989 with Emperor Showa Hiroshito, the Japanese only saw him twice a year; New Year's and for his birthday, where he gave short speeches of less than 10 lines. Emperor Akihito changed this and brought the imperial office into the modern century. The current Emperor Naruhito wants that too, but he must constantly fight against a rigid court system, which is "a state within a state".
It was therefore also the case for the court nobility – the kuge county princes, who had high imperial rank as county princes – but no county area, power and money.
So no mortal Japanese had seen either the Emperor or any of the many Kuge noble families when they were let out of "their golden cages" after 650 years, in 1868 or when the new Shin Meiji titles of nobility were conferred in 1884 onwards.
It made no sense to the Japanese that some "strange courtiers who for 650 years only surrounded other courtiers with their noses in the air" suddenly became dukes, marquises and counts in the newly created "House of Lords".
And this, together with low-ranking officials, who had previously functioned as the landlord's bailiffs and estate managers from Daimyo-county families, who were to be considered "on the fringes of Japan", suddenly got the same shin Meiji nobility titles and state pensions, when before they had "just been the neighbors in the local white-collar housing estate” and had had no historical significance for Japan – that is, ever before.
It also meant huge political contradictions between the Emperor and Genro.
Emperor Meiji (1867-1912) and other emperors before him could nominate everyone in the first 5 ranks who had importance with the right to represent the emperor. It was therefore the nobility of Japan for 2650+ years.
In the new Meiji nobility from 1884-1947, the first 4 ranks meant appointment as baron, viscount, count, marquis and duke, and the fifth rank was untitled Meiji patent of nobility.
It was Genro who was responsible for the recommendations in the new Meiji nobility, - with the emperor as a "rubber stamp". This led to contradictory appointments.
This meant, for example, that between 65-85 % of all Meiji new plantations on the three upper levels, - you basically didn't know who was or had heard of, and vice versa when it was the two lower levels.
They initially tried to make "lifetime new plantations", just like in the UK where there are plantations for life. But they gave that up after a short time, when the tone-setting "new nobles of life", including the Emperor's Council of Ministers Genro, definitely believed that one could easily buy into a noble family tree and thus with the snap of a finger set aside 2,650+ years of cultural history.
The last nail in the coffin, it didn't make sense at all for the Japanese people that the Shire Daimyos, as for centuries or millennia, were generally given lower Shin Meiji noble titles, when the Daimyo Shire function for the 261 Shire areas, had been the Japanese people's closest bosses, role models and contact.
The Shin Meiji nobility titles lasted from 1884-1947, just 63 years and was considered a "political footnote" as 70 % of the appointments were Shin - new high political nobles who had never been high nobles before or no one knew who they were.
Everyone, on the other hand, knew who the shogun and the Daimyo lords were for 30, 70 or 126 generations, and therefore all Japanese today regard these as the creators of Japan's history.
Emperor Meiji (1867-1912)
