thumb|right|300px|The [[House of Peers (Japan)|House of Peers in session with Emperor Meiji giving a speech (Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Yōshū Chikanobu, 1890)]]

The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. It was formed by merging the feudal lords (daimyō) and court nobles (kuge) into one system modelled after the British peerage. Distinguished military officers, politicians, and scholars were occasionally ennobled as , until the country's defeat in the Second World War in 1945. The system was abolished with the 1947 constitution, which prohibited any form of aristocracy under it, but kazoku descendants still form the core of the traditional upper class in the country's society, distinct from the nouveau riche.

should not be confused with , which is pronounced the same in Japanese, but written with a different first character, meaning "immediate family" (as in the film Kazoku).

Origins

thumb|209x209px|Prince [[Tokugawa Iesato, first head of the Tokugawa clan after the overthrow of the shogunate, was President of the House of Peers from 1903 to 1933.]]

Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the ancient court nobility of Kyoto, the , regained some of its lost status. Several members of the , such as Iwakura Tomomi and Nakayama Tadayasu, played a crucial role in the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the early Meiji government nominated to head all seven of the newly established administrative departments.

The Meiji oligarchs, as part of their Westernizing reforms, merged the with the former into an expanded aristocratic class on 25 July 1869, to recognize that the and former were a social class distinct from the other designated social classes of and . They lost their territorial privileges. By 1928, through promotions and new creations, there were a total of 954 peers: 18 non-imperial princes, 40 marquesses, 108 counts, 379 viscounts and 409 barons. The reached a peak of 1016 families in 1944.

The 1947 Constitution of Japan abolished the and ended the use of all titles of nobility or rank outside the immediate Imperial Family. Since the end of the war, many descendants of the families continue to occupy prominent roles in Japanese society and industry.

The , or Peers' Club, was the association of the high nobility. It had its headquarters in the building. After 1947 it was renamed the , and is now located in the Kasumigaseki Building in Kasumigaseki.

Life

thumb|Guest house of the [[Mitsui family|Mitsui Barony (Mita, Tokyo)]]

Although kazoku families were supposed to live in a style that matched their status, living standards varied significantly from family to family. Kuge families, long having been seen as a spent force since the samurai class became the de facto ruling class in the 11th century, tended to be significantly worse off than daimyo families. The , consisting of 26 monk families from Kofukuji, who descended from kuge families (22 of which belonged to the Fujiwara clan), were all made barons under the kazoku system. They were regarded as the poorest and received extra stipends to support their living. A 1915 survey found that a kazoku family had around 13 servants on average, while the grandest families had hundreds.

left|thumb|288x288px|[[Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu|Prince and Princess Takamatsu at the entrance of Hotel Adlon in 1930]]

Almost all kazoku heirs raised in Japan attended the Gakushuin for their primary and secondary education. For higher education, the most preferred institutions included the University of Tokyo (called Tokyo Imperial University 1897-1947) (e.g., Prince Iemasa Tokugawa, Count Yoriyasu Arima) and the naval and army academies (e.g., Viscount Naganari Ogasawara, Marquess Toshinari Maeda). Some opted to be educated overseas, such as at Eton College (e.g., Prince Iesato Tokugawa) and Cambridge University (e.g., Marquess Masauji Hachisuka, Baron Koayata Iwasaki). After completing their education, they pursued varied careers such as statesmen at the House of Peers, diplomats (e.g., Prince Iemasa Tokugawa, Marquess Naohiro Nabeshima), and scholars (e.g., Marquess Yoshichika Tokugawa, Prince Tomohide Iwakura). Those who followed rather unusual career paths included Marquess Hijikata Yoshi, who became a communist and fled to Soviet Russia, and Meiho Ogasawara, an heir to a viscountcy who pursued his passion for films and was disinherited in 1935.

Kazoku usually married within their class. The Imperial Household Law of 1889 prohibited Imperial Princes from marrying commoners, hence their options were limited to Princesses and daughters of kazoku families. Kazoku daughters who married into the Imperial family include Kikuko, Princess Takamatsu (née Tokugawa), Yuriko, Princess Mikasa (née Takagi), and Setsuko, Princess Chichibu (née Matsudaira).<gallery mode="packed">

File:Seiyokan (Nabeshima residence in Tokyo).jpg|Tokyo house of Marquess Naohiro Nabeshima

File:Hofu Mouri Residence and Museum.JPG|Former Hōfu country house of Viscount Mototoshi Mori (now Mori Museum)

File:Former Maeda Estate 2009.jpg|Former Tokyo residence of Marquess Toshinari Maeda (now Komaba Park)

File:View of Murin-an garden from main house.jpg|Former Kyoto residence of Prince Aritomo Yamagata (now Murin-an)

File:Kazoku-Jogakko.JPG|Kazoku Girls' School (Gakushuin Girls' School) in 1889

File:Kaimei kizokuhyō by Shinsai.jpg|alt=<nowiki>Woodblock print by Kobayashi Toshimitsu, "Table of Enlightened Aristocrats", 1877. Depicts Prince Arisugawa Taruhito, Enomoto Takeaki, Ōkuma Shigenobu, Kuroda Kiyotaka, Saigō Takamori, Yamagata Aritomo, Iwakura Tomomi, Sanjō Sanetomi, Ōkubo Toshimichi, Kido Takayoshi, Shimazu Hisamitsu, Katsu Kaishū, Itō Hirobumi, Kusumoto Masataka, Itagaki Taisuke, Gotō Shōjirō and Prince Komatsu Akihito</nowiki>|Woodblock print of "Enlightened Nobles", depicting prominent noble politicians and military commanders of the Meiji era, 1877

File:A0287992 2392942.jpg|Itsuko, Princess of Nashimoto (née Nabeshima)

File:Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) and Tsuneo Matsudaira aboard Battleship Musashi - 24 June 1943.jpg|Tsuneo Matsudaira and Emperor Hirohito on Musashi

File:Tokugawa Yoshichika 01.jpg|Marquess Yoshichika Tokugawa with a tiger he hunted in Malaya

File:Princess Mikasa 2012-1-2.jpg|Yuriko, Princess Mikasa, one of the last members of the Imperial family who were born as kazoku

File:Kijūrō Shidehara, Tomosaburō Katō and Iesato Tokugawa.jpg|Baron Kijuro Shidehara (later Prime Minister), Viscount Tomosaburo Kato and Prince Iesato Tokugawa at Washington Naval Conference

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See also

Notes

References

  • Some Information on Nobility, Peerage and Ranks in Ancient and Meiji Japan—Information on Japanese nobility with additional sources