The Society for Japanese Studies
In Name Only: Imperial Sovereignty in Early Modern Japan
Author(s): Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), pp. 25-57
Published by: The Society for Japanese Studies
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BOB TADASHI WAKABAYASHI
In Name Only:
ImperialSovereigntyin EarlyModernJapan
KokutaiMyth and Historical Consciousness
In the following pages, I reexamine the issue of imperial sovereignty in
the early modern(or Tokugawa)period of Japanesehistory. It is a contentious, emotionally chargedissue closely linked to politics and historiography under Japan'smodern emperorstate. In April 1933, for example, the
eminent Tokugawa specialist and Emeritus Professor Mikami Sanji welcomed a new class of Japanesehistory majorsto Tokyo ImperialUniversity. But he warnedthem that, concerningemperor-relatedtopics, "You're
going to study true history here; just don't teach it to your pupils after
you become teachers."' The next month, Ministerof EducationHatoyama
Ichir6 dismissed Kyoto ImperialUniversitylaw professorTakigawaYukitora for harboringand disseminatinganti-emperor"dangerousthought."2
Mikami'scensorshipof "true"historyand the government'spersecutionof
Takigawain 1933 foreshadowedthe Minobe Incidentof 1935, which epitomized prewarJapan'sbrutalsuppressionof political dissent, academicfreeAn earlierversion of this article was presentedat the Midwest JapanSeminarand Association for Asian Studies Midwest Conferenceon October28, 1989. My thanksgo to Susan
Long, who organizedthat panel, and to Mikiso Hane, Koji Taira,JacksonBailey, and Diana
Wright-Fossfor helpful comments. I am gratefulto Suzuki Masayuki,OkamotoKoichi, MaruyamaMakoto, KuriharaTamiko, and Lynne Kutsukake,who kindly securedsource materials for me from Japan. Canada'sSocial Science and HumanitiesResearchCouncil provided
financialsupportfor this project.
1. Cited in Inoue Kiyoshi, "Tennosei no rekishi," as reprinted in Inoue, Tennosei
(Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai,1953), p. 3.
2. On the 1933 TakigawaIncident, see Ouchi Tsutomu, Nihon no rekishi24: Fashizumu
e no michi (Tokyo: Chuo K6ronsha, 1967), pp. 360-67. The incident did little to harm
Hatoyama'spostwarpolitical career.Though initiallypurgedby SCAP in April 1946, he went
on to serve as prime minister,headingthreecabinetsfrom December 1954 to December 1956.
Journalof JapaneseStudies, 17:1
? 1991 Society for JapaneseStudies
25
26
Journal of Japanese Studies
dom, and civil liberties in the name of "clarifyingour kokutai"along the
road to fascism and war.
Most of Japan'spostwarhistoricalprofession, having sufferedthrough
these and even more unpleasantprewarand wartimeexperiences, has dedicated itself to refuting kokutai dogmas and myths propagatedby the
old emperor state. Some of the more prominentof these include belief
in: a harmoniousfamily state under direct imperial rule since 660 B.C.,
widespreadpopularreverencefor the emperorthroughoutJapan'shistory,
and the superiorityof the Japaneserace due to its divine origins. Postwar
Marxist historians in particularhave been at the forefrontof this mythdebunking crusade, striving to prove that emperorsdid not actually rule
and commoners did not truly reverethem as deities during most of Japanese history.
As HattoriShis6 explainedin 1948, ancientand modernJapansuffered
from imperial despotism;but "the emperorsystem lost real power in between those eras, when it existed 'in name only,' as underour new [1947]
constitution."3In 1946, Inoue Kiyoshi arguedthat the imperialinstitution
had always been totally divorced from the people's daily lives. He provocatively assertedthat early Meiji commonersdid not even know of the
emperor'sexistence; they had to be introducedto him and informedof his
divine lineage thus: "The emperor is descended from the Sun Goddess
Amaterasuand has been master[nushi] of Japansince the world began."4
Leftist Japanese intellectuals today, from academic historians such as
FujiwaraAkirato best-sellernovelists such as MorimuraSeiichi, still subscribe to Inoue's thesis of commonerignoranceaboutthe emperor.5
This postwar Japanese abhorrence to and repudiation of kokutai
dogmas and myths is by no means limited to Marxists. In fact, the nonMarxist legal historianIshii Ryosuke producedwhat became postwarhistoriographicorthodoxy on the emperorsystem in his 1950 opus, Tenn6:
Tenni t6chi no shitekikaimei(The emperor:a historicalclarificationof imperial rule).
Accordingto Ishii, Japan's"normal"political system and "true"tradition of governmentwas for emperors not to rule; they actually wielded
power only from Nara to early Heian times and from 1868 to 1945. But
those eras were anomalieswithin Japanesehistoryas a whole because they
3. HattoriShis6, "Tenn6seizettaishugino kakuritsu,"in NaramotoTatsuya,ed., Hattori Shis6 zenshi, Vol. 10 (Tokyo:FukumuraShuppan, 1974), p. 125.
4. Quoted by Inoue in Tenn6sei,pp. 15-16.
5. See FujiwaraAkira, Yoshida Yutaka, Ito Satoru, and Kunugi Toshihiro, Tenno no
Sh6wa-shi (Tokyo:Shin Nihon Shuppansha,1984), p. 15; MorimuraSeiichi, "Watakushino
naka no Showa tenno," Sekai, March 1989, p. 99.
Wakabayashi: Imperial Sovereignty
27
witnessed the full-scale importationof alien despoticpolitical models from
China and the West. Ishii argued that the emperor had not empowered
TokugawaIeyasu to govern Japanby naming him shogun in 1603, for no
one can delegate powershe does not have. Thus, grantingthe shogunaltitle
did not constitutean "imperialinvestiture"of power, as standardexplanations held. Instead, Ieyasu empoweredhimself to rule by achieving military hegemony in the realm. Emperorsin the early modernperiod enjoyed
but three prerogatives:to grant court ranks and office titles, select era
names, and promulgatethe calendar.Yet even these functionsmeant nothing because they in fact were dictatedby Edo.6
The 1962 draft version of lenaga Saburo's controversialhigh-school
text, ShinNihon-shi, expandedon Ishii'sthesis, statingthat "emperorslost
their position as sovereigns [kunshu]"at the startof the Tokugawaperiod.
But the Ministry of Educationcensoredthis passage in 1965, retortingthat
"emperors did indeed remain sovereigns, though only formally. This is
clear because shogun . . . were appointed by the emperor; and shogun,
daimyo, and bakufubannermenwere appointed to court office under the
ritsuryo system." 7
But regardlessof the Ministryof Education'sstandin this controversy,
the scholarly consensus among postwaracademic historiansin Japanand
the West generally upholds Ishii.8 Though revisionism began to appear
in the 1980s, most historians would agree that Tokugawa-eraemperors
closely resemblepostwaremperors:In both eras, they were (are)politically
impotent "symbols" of the state, not actualrulingsovereigns.9As Ishii put
it, the emperor's"appointing"of shogun from 1603 to 1867 was an empty
formality, just as the emperor's "appointing" of prime ministers or su6. Ishii Ry6suke, Tenno: Tenn6 tochi no shiteki kaimei (Tokyo: K6bundo, 1950),
pp. 1-6 and 216-26. Note that in a 1982 reprintedition, Ishii altered his subtitle to read
"Tennono seisei oyobi fushinsei no dento" (The emperor'sgenesis and traditionof non-rule).
Ishii's views have not changed since 1950. For recent reiterations,see Ishii, ShimpenEdo
jidai mampitsu ge (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha, 1979), pp. 5-13 and 46-52; also Ishii
Ryosuke and MurakamiTadashi, "Hoseishi karamitacho-bakukankeishi,"in Rekishikoron,
No. 107 (October 1984), pp. 126-46.
7. Emphasisadded. See Ienaga Sabur6, "Ky6ikugy6sei ni shimesarerutennoseizo," in
Gendai to shis6, No. 15 (March 1974), p. 74; Ochiai Nobutaka, "Rekishiky6kashoni okeru
tenno no jojutsu," in Rekishihyoron, No. 314 (June 1976), p. 72.
8. For Western scholarship, see, for example, Herschel Webb, The Japanese Imperial
Institutionin the TokugawaPeriod (New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1968).
9. For criticism of the Ishii thesis stressingits insidious implicationsfor the present, see
Miyaji Masato, "Sengo tennosei no tokushitsu," Rekishi hyoron, No. 364 (August 1980),
p. 28; TakahashiHikohiro, "Shocho tennosei no rikai o megutte," in Rekishigakukenkyiu,
No. 593 (May 1989); and AkasakaNorio, "Tennofushinsei to iu kyoz6," in Sekai, February
1990, pp. 223-31.
28
Journal of Japanese Studies
preme court chief justices has been since 1947 underArticle Six of Japan's
postwar constitution.10
Withoutdoubt, emperorsin early modernJapanwere impotentand the
imperial court in Kyoto survived due to bakufulargesse. The Tokugawa
military regime in Edo exercised de facto sovereign power. The shogun,
not the emperor, took responsibilityfor Japan'sdefense and foreign relations; the shogun, not the emperor, conferred lands to daimyo and
confiscated these from them. Politically conscious Japanese in early to
mid-Tokugawatimes believed that the emperorand court had proventheir
administrativeincompetenceby the time of EmperorGo-Daigo (r. 131839). People assumedthat only militarygovernmentscould rule effectively
in Japanaftercenturiesof courtcorruptionand decline thathad culminated
in the disastrousJokyt Warof 1221and KemmuRestorationof 1333-36.
Tokugawathinkersconstruedthis fall of the imperialhouse leading to
warriorand bakufusupremacyas "historicallyirreversible."" As the Chu
Hsi ConfucianMuroKyuso (1658-1734) noted, it rancontraryto reasonin
natureand human affairs to desire a never-endingimperialdynasty: "No
dynastythathas risen to powerhas ever avoidedfalling from it, [justas] no
man given life has ever escapeddeath." 2 The SoraiSchool thinkers,Dazai
Shundai (1680-1747) and YamagataDaini (1725-67), called Japan'simperial house a "defunct dynasty" (shokoku).13 According to Kumazawa
Banzan(1611-91), "controlof the realmwill neverrevertto imperialcourt
nobles; for even if we warriorsrestoredit to them, [theirrule] would not
last for long." 14Or, as YamagaSoko (1622-85) put it, "even myriadoxen
could not returnthe imperialcourt to the power it enjoyed in antiquity."15
EmperorGo-Mizunoo (r. 1611-29) admittedthat much when he la10. Ishii, Tenno, p. 171. In eitherera, the emperorlacked (lacks) any powerto rejectthe
designatedcandidateor to substitutesomeone else for the post in question.
11. This subject is thoroughlytreated by Japanesehistorians. See, for example, Uete
Michiari, Nihon kindai shis6 no keisei (Tokyo: IwanamiShoten, 1974), pp. 197-231; Matsumoto Sannosuke, Kinsei Nihon no shisozo (Tokyo: Kembun Shuppan, 1984), pp. 348; Ozawa Eiichi, Kinsei shigaku shisoshi kenkyu(Tokyo: YoshikawaK6bunkan, 1972),
pp. 370-448.
12. Muro Kyuso, "Yusa Jir6zaemonni kotauruno sho," in ArakiKengo and Inoue Tadashi, eds., Nihon shis6 taikei 34: Kaibara Ekken, Muro Kyuso (Tokyo: IwanamiShoten,
1970), p. 250.
13. Dazai Shundaias quotedby Yuasa Gentei (d. 1781)in Bunkaizakki.This document
is found in HayakawaJunzabur6,ed., Nihon zuihitsu taisei (Tokyo: YoshikawaK6bunkan,
1927), Vol. 7, pp. 609 and 655; YamagataDaini in KawauraGenchi, ed., Ryashi shinron
(Tokyo:IwanamiBunko, 1943), pp. 39, 68, and 81.
14. KumazawaBanzan, Shugi washo, in Goto Y6ichi and TomoedaRyutar6,eds., Nihon shiso taikei 30: KumazawaBanzan (Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1971), p. 150.
15. Takkyod6mon, in Hirose Yutaka, ed., YamagaSoko zenshfi shiso hen (Tokyo:
IwanamiShoten, 1940), Vol. 12, p. 322.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
29
mented: "In antiquity, imperial edicts commandedobedience in all matters; now Our words have no effect. . . . That is appalling, but it can't be
helped in this degenerate age."16 The Tokugawa bakufuwas being realistic, not punitive, when it decreedin 1615thatthe emperorand court confine themselves to cultural, ceremonial, and religious pursuits, for these
were the only mattersthey were competentto handle.
Despite all this persuasive evidence for the emperor'simpotence and
political irrelevance, the perennialquestion in early modernJapanesepolitical history remainsunanswered:Why couldn'tthis superfluousemperor
just be killed off and his anachronisticdynastyeradicated?In other words,
how can historiansrationallyexplain why the imperialline remained"unbroken throughoutthe ages eternal"?17
At the risk of seeming to exhume abhorrentprewarkokutai myths, I
believe part of the answer is that the emperor and his court alone were
qualifiedto performcertainnecessaryfunctionsin early modernJapan,especially for the shogun and daimyo, but also for other social strata. Many
Japanesein that prescientificage perceived the emperorto be their country's highest deity and ultimate source of divine legitimation. Court ties
with Buddhisttemples and Shint6 shrinesbecame stronger,not weaker, in
the Tokugawaperiod. This sacred authority,which only the emperorand
court could bestow, manifesteditself in ritsuryocourt ranksand titles and
in imperial lineages-in "names" that conveyed incontestable prestige
throughoutthe nation.
Modern, and especially Western,historianssuch as myself tend to miss
the significance of these factors. First, we often forget that, despite the
vaunted rationalism attributedto some Tokugawathinkers such as Arai
Hakuseki, many highly intelligent people in that period continued to believe in the ability of the emperorand court to invoke the power of gods,
buddhas, and spirits. The Kyoto scholar Hori Keizan (1688-1757), who
was Motoori Norinaga's first mentor, is a prime example. Hori declared
that even the most powerful warriorsand would-be usurpersin Japanese
history, such as Taira no Kiyomori and Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, could not
help being deferentialtoward"the master[nushi] of Japan"in Kyoto. This
was because they dreaded being branded "an enemy of the emperor"
16. "Shinkangoky6kun sho," in MiuraT6saku, ed., Rekidaishochokuzenshui(Tokyo:
Kawade Shobo, 1941), Vol. 4, pp. 198-99.
17. For recent critical bibliographicsurveys of secondaryscholarshipon this issue, see
MizubayashiTakeshi, "Kinsei tennosei kenkyuni tsuite no ichi kosatsu(jo)," in Rekishigaku
kenkyi, No. 596 (August 1989), pp. 18-27; Mizubayashi,"Kinsei tennosei kenkyu ni tsuite
no ichi kosatsu (ge)," in Rekishigakukenkyvi,No. 597 (September 1989), pp. 19-33; and
Kubo Takako, "Kinsei cho-bakukankeishino kadai," in Rekishihyoron, No. 475 (November
1989), pp. 26-41.
30
Journal of Japanese Studies
(choteki). Amaterasu's"mysteriousand unfathomable"illustrious virtue
ensuredthata warrior'sdemise would be "as fast as a mudslide"if he were
so branded.Hori cited the periodic Ise pilgrimagesas anothermanifestation of the "mysteriousand unfathomable"bondlinkingthe imperialcourt
and Japanesemasses. Here, too, was a warningto any militaryleaderwho
might dareforget his subjectstatusandbecome an enemy of the emperor.'8
Second, and more to the point of this article, we Westernhistorians
often fail to appreciatethe prestigeand significancethatimperiallygranted
"names" have had for Japanesepeople. Thus, we customarilycite Japanese historicalfiguresby theirtrue surnamesand best-knowngiven names
for reasons of clarity and easy identification.And we dismiss-as merely
formal or honorific-the imperiallineages, assumedsurnames,and court
ranksor titles thatthose figuresactuallywent by. But those formal, honorific names conveyed an importantsense of identityand self-esteem to preand early modern Japanese. By ignoring or discountingthese names, we
have overlooked a key reason-though not the sole reason-why Japan's
emperorsystem has survivedand prosperedinto moderntimes.
The Early ModernBases of KokutaiMyth
It is undeniablethat significantsegmentsof commonersociety in early
modern Japanknew about and felt affection for emperors. For example,
townsfolkthroughoutthe land were beginningto celebratethe Doll Festival
(momo no sekku) at that time. Each spring, women and girls displayedin
their homes dolls of the emperor,empress, and high nobles-all decked
out in court dress and lined up on steps accordingto courtrankand office.
So even illiterate little commonergirls were startingto yearn for the elegant and enchantedworld of Kyoto's imperialcourt, the imperialfamily,
and the high nobility.19And, we should note, they learned about court
ranks and titles. Perhaps because of such childhood experiences, one
Kyoto maiden mournedthe passing of EmperorGo-Y6zei in 1617with the
verse:
[His Majesty,]
beyondus abovetheclouds.
In all placesunderHeaven,
tearsof sadnessdrenchoursleeves.20
18. Hori Keizan, Fujingen, in TakimotoSeiichi, ed., Nihon keizai s6sho (Tokyo:Nihon
Keizai Sosho Kank6dai, 1915), Vol. 11, pp. 315-17.
19. WatanabeHiroshi, Seiji shiso-shi 2: Kinsei Nihon seiji shis6 (Tokyo: Nihon Hoso
ShuppanKyokai, 1985), p. 84.
20. Nakamura Yukihiko and Nakano Mitsutoshi, eds., Kasshi yawa (Tokyo: Toy6
Bunko, 1977), Vol. 2, p. 45.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
31
Many early modern Japanese commoners, especially in or near the
Kyoto region, held the emperorin religious awe as a "manifest divinity"
(genzai no kami).21The emperor was deemed to possess magical power
and sacerdotalauthority.When Sengoku or Tokugawadaimyo signed loyalty oaths to an overlordin returnfor recognitionof their fiefs, they swore
by "the great and lesser gods of all the 60-plus provinces in Japan," of
whom the emperorwas highest-ranking.Theiroaths were not always taken
lightly, as can be seen from a 1582 entry in the Tamon'innikki.The author,
a K6fukuji priest, tells of Oda Nobunaga beheading Takeda Katsuyori,
notes an eruptionof Mt. Asama, and relates that "recent typhoons, hailstorms, lightning fires, and upside-downrainstormsoccurredbecause the
emperorhad banishedthe [protective]deities of those states that opposed
Nobunaga."22 The emperor and court had historically prayed to the national deities for the state'swelfare in times of pestilence or crisis, as in the
thirteenthcentury when Japanfaced Mongol invaders.
In Tokugawatimes, a reigningemperor'spersonwas believed so sacred
that no physician might examine it and no blade might touch it. Shaving,
hair-cutting,and nail-clippingwere taboos until after abdication;instead,
handmaidensbit off the reigning emperor'shair, beard, and nails.23Imperial authorizationwas needed to deify TokugawaIeyasu as "Tosho daigongen." 24 Only the court could confer kaminame, status, and court rank;
and once conferred, only the court could revoke these. In 1615, Edo petitioned the imperial court to strip Toyotomi Hideyoshi of his deity status
and it razed his Hokoku Shrine in the Higashiyamadistrictof Kyoto.25But
KanzawaTeikan(1710-95), a Constablein the bakufu'sKyoto Magistracy,
criticized his superiorsof the previouscenturyon the groundsthat: "A de21. See HashimotoTsunesuke, Kisso jigo, in Nihon zuihitsu taisei (Tokyo: Yoshikawa
Kobunkan, 1927), Vol. 2, p. 822. Miyata Noboru, who quotes this verse, holds that the emperor thereforewas a "living god" (ikigami) to "the general masses." See Miyata, Ikigami
shink6 (Tokyo:HanawaShobo, 1970), p. 91.
22. Quoted in Mitobe Masao, Nihonshijono tennd (Tokyo:FukumuraShuppan, 1967),
pp. 183-84.
23. HoraTomio, Tenn6ofushinsei
no kigen (Tokyo:AzekuraShobo, 1979), pp. 93-123.
The original source for this, however,is somewhatquestionable.Horabases his assertionon a
work entitled Tankaiwrittenby a samurainamedTsumuraMasatakasometime between 1775
and 1795. Tsumuraprefacedhis workby saying thatmuch of what he records"is hearsayand
may be contraryto fact." Yet both Horaand FukayaKatsumiarguethatthese assertionsabout
the reigning emperor are credible. See also Fukaya, "Kinsei no tenno to shogun," in Rekishigaku Kenkyukai, Nihonshi Kenkyukai, ed., K6za Nihon rekishi 6: Kinsei 2 (Tokyo:
Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai,1985), p. 49.
24. Kitajima Masamoto, "Tokugawa Ieyasu no shinkakka ni tsuite," Kokushigaku,
No. 94 (November 1974), pp. 1-13.
25. Ibid., pp. 8-9.
32
Journal of Japanese Studies
ity's name is decreedby imperialedict. How can a warriorhouse, based on
its own wants, destroythis deity's shrine, foundedby the emperor?"26
Matters related to the national divinities were a court monopoly, as
these had been throughoutJapan'shistory and remaintoday.27Thus, Emperor Ogimachi (r. 1560-86) could issue an imperialmessage asking that
Western Christian missionaries be expelled from Kyoto in 1565, even
though Miyoshi Nagayoshi and the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteruhad already granted them permission to proselytize in the area.28In the early
modern era, just as in earlier eras, members of the imperial family and
court nobility filled high-rankingposts in Japan'sreligious orders. Though
subjectto certain bakufurestrictions,Kyoto continuedto issue courtranks
to powerfultemples and Shinto shrines, and to grantprestigiouscourttitles
such as Chief Abbot (zasu or betto) or Saint (shonin) to the Buddhist
clergy as well as similartitles to Shintopriests. And, just as in earliereras,
the emperorandhis courtprayedto Japan'smyriadgods andbuddhasfor the
shogun'shealthand longevity andfor the realm'speace andprosperity.29
No doubt partly for such reasons, Tokugawa Hidetada and Iemitsu
acknowledged "subject" (shin) status toward a "sovereign" (kimi) emperor.30The imperialpalace and its environsin Kyoto constituteda miniatureritsuryostateuntoitself, wherebakufuauthoritydid not fully penetrate.
The sacrosanct Inner Palace remained intact, where "highest nobles"
(kugyo)of RanksOne to Threeperformedstateceremonialsandfillednominal governmentposts such as Ministersof State(daijin);Great,Middle, and
Lesser Counsellor (dai-, chu-, sho-nagon); or Court Councillor (sangi).
Kyoto as a whole enjoyed certain special immunities and privileges
underTokugawalaw due to its sacred statusas "the imperialcity." When
Saikaku'stireless rake, Yonosuke, drove his ox cart into Kyoto, he noted
"with gratefulreverence"that "you can get away with things not permis26. KanzawaTeikan, Okinagusa (Tokyo:Nihon RekishiShuppan,1970), Vol. 1, p. 506.
27. MurakamiShigeyoshi holds that performanceof religious Shinto rituals, not status
as a living god, has been the core of the emperorsystem throughouthistory;thus, the Occupation made a fatal mistakein simply forcing the emperorto renouncehis divinity while retaining his palace rituals. Murakami,Tennono saishi (Tokyo:IwanamiShinsho, 1977), pp. 1-8
and 217-18.
28. Murai Sanae, "Kirishitan kinsei o meguru tenno to toitsu kenryoku," in Miki
Seiichiro, ed., Sengoku daimyo ronshu 18: Toyotomiseiken no kenkyu(Tokyo: Yoshikawa
Kobunkan;1984), pp. 395-414.
29. FukayaKatsumi, "Bakuhanseikokkato tenno," in KitajimaMasamoto,ed., Bakuhansei kokkaseiritsu katei no kenkyu(Tokyo:YoshikawaKobunkan,1977), p. 267.
30. Miyazawa Seiichi, "Bakuhansei-kino tenno no ideorogiitekikiban," in Kitajima,
ed., Bakuhanseikokkaseiritsu katei no kenkyui,p. 215, note 12;TsukamotoManabu, "Buke
shohattono seikaku ni tsuite," in Nihon rekishi, No. 290 (July 1972), pp. 29-30.
Wakabayashi:Imperial Sovereignty
33
sible elsewhere because this is His Majesty'sdomain."31 Or, as anotherof
Saikaku'scharactersreckoned, Awataguchiwas partof Kyoto: "The imperial city is venerable, so no one can punishus even if we sit up straightand
sing throughour noses [when daimyos pass by]." 32Due to the presence of
the emperor and court in Kyoto, commoners could ride vehicles, which
was normally forbiddento their status; and they could be insolent rather
than cringe in the dirt before their feudal betters. Way-clearersand vertically held spearswere forbiddento daimyoretinuesin the imperialcapital
region, and some daimyo found these and otherrestrictionsso irksomethat
they bypassed the Kyoto area wheneverpossible.33
The emperor and court retained significant prestige in early modern
Japanese society; and they enhanced the social standing of daimyo and
shogunal houses by grantingcourt ranks, office titles, and noble pedigrees
incorporatedin personalnames or adoptedas imperiallineage names. For
example, the Chushingurahero Oishi Yoshio was an Elder (karo) in Ako
domain. As such, he could not very well go by just his given name. So he
adoptedthe office title "Kuranosuke,"literally "Assistantin the Bureauof
Imperial Palace Warehouses," which was supposed to come with Junior
Sixth Rank Upper Level. Muro Kyuso explained this peculiar Japanese
namingpracticeas follows in his accountof the Chuishinguraincident, Ak6
gi jin roku:
According to Japanesecustom, . . persons who hold imperialoffice are
addressedby theiroffice titles. But even those who do not hold office might
still assume a title name; some [like Oishi] adopt the ideographsof an
office title. Or, others call themselves accordingto the orderof their birth
in relationto siblings.34
As Muro here indicates, even people who did not actually hold imperial
office in Japan'sritsuryogovernmentwantedto be addressedas if they did.
ImperialHonors and Pre-TokugawaWarriors
To understand why title names were coveted for their prestige in
Tokugawatimes, we must recall that the warriorhouses' climb to socio31. IharaSaikaku, Koshokuichidai otoko, in TeruokaYasutakaand Higashi Akimasa,
eds., Nihon kotenbungakuzenshti38: Ihara Saikakushi I (Tokyo:Sh6gakkan,1971),p. 288.
32. Saikakuoridome, in Noma K6shin, ed., Nihon kotenbungakutaikei48: Saikakushu
ge (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1960), p. 366. My translationdiffers substantiallyfrom Peter
Nosco's in Some Final Wordsof Advice (Tokyo:Tuttle, 1980), p. 110.
33. See the head notes providedby Teruokaand Higashi in Nihon kotenbungakuzenshi
38 for Ichidai otoko, and by Noma in Nihon koten bungakutaikei 48 for Oridome.
34. Muro Kyus6, Ak6 gijin roku, in Ishii Shir6, ed., Nihon shisd taikei27: Kinsei buke
shis6 (Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1974), p. 316.
34
Journal of Japanese Studies
political preeminencein Japanwas historicallytied to the imperialcourt.
Medieval war tales graphicallydepict how this court-warriorrelationship
emerged. Let us look at a key episode from the Hogen monogatari. In
1156, the forces of Tairano Kiyomori, who supportEmperorGoshirakawa,
are attacking Retired Emperor Sutoku's ShirakawaPalace, defended by
Minamotono Tametomo:
"Who'sdefendingthis gate?Nameyourselves!We aremen of Ise-Ito
of
fromFuruichi,andIt6 Go andIti Roku.Weareunderlings
Kagetsuna
of Aki."Onhearingthis,Tametomo
Governor
[Kiyomori,]theProvincial
replied,"EvenyourLordKiyomoriis an unworthyopponent.TheHeike
aredescendedfromEmperorKashiwabara
[Kammu],butthatwas long,
removed
long ago.35Everyoneknowswe Genjiareonly ninegenerations
fromEmperorSeiwa. I am 'Pacifierof the West,'Hachir6Tametomo,
on theSixthAvenue.'
eighthson of Tameyoshi,whois 'PoliceLieutenant
removed
He is a grandsonof LordHachiman[Yoshiie],sevengenerations
thefirstMinamoto].
If youare
fromImperialPrinceRokuson[Tsunemoto,
be gone!"36
called[a triflingnamelike] 'Kagetsuna,'
This calling out of one's name before battle was not what it seems to
us moderns:either a quaintritual formality,or a "formulaictechniqueof
composition" used by chanters to enchance their tale-telling.37Instead,
namingone's name had practicalsignificanceas a means of statusverification-somewhat like the exchangingof name cardsby businessmentoday.
For these early medieval warriors, the only indices of status were noble
birth or imperial ranks and titles denoting office-holding in the ritsuryo
government.The lineage names, or kabane,of Fujiwara,Tachibana,Minamoto, Taira, and, later, Toyotomi, were bestowed by the emperor and
court. Tametomohere boasts Minamoto,or Genji, superiorityto the Taira,
or Heike, based on thickerblue blood. Tametomowas but nine generations
removed from EmperorSeiwa; Kiyomori was eleven removed from Emperor Kammu, as everyone knew. So if Kiyomorihimself was unfit to engage Tametomo, a mere underling (roto) like Kagetsunawas even less
worthy.
Naming his name also gave Tametomoa chanceto paradeall the imperial office titles thatthe Genji boasted. He took for himself "Pacifierof the
West" (chinzei) because of his exploits in Kyushu, though this had not
35. William R. Wilson translatesthe italicizedphraseas "overthe yearstheyhavedegenerated." See Wilson, tr., Hogen monogatari(Tokyo:SophiaUniversityPress, 1971),p. 36.
36. Nagazumi Yasuakiand ShimadaIsao, eds., Nihon koten bungakutaikei 31: Hogen
monogatari,Heiji monogatari(Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1961), p. 361. I follow the Kokatsuji
ratherthan the Kotohiraversion of the Hogen monogataritext.
37. For this view, see KennethDean Butler, "The Heike monogatariand the Japanese
WarriorEthic," in HarvardJournal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1 (1969), p. 103.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
35
been authorizedby the court. Tameyoshi,his father,had received the title
hogan, or "Police Lieutenant,"for his years of service to the court on the
Sixth Avenue in Kyoto. By contrast,Kagetsunacould, as an Iti, claim descent from the I-se no Fuji-wara.38But Ito and his brotherslack court rank
and title; they can name only personalnames or numbernames like "Five"
(Go) and "Six" (Roku). So the best Ito could do was to announcehimself
as the follower of someone who did hold a high imperialtitle-the "Provincial Governor of Aki." That is why Tametomo snorts, "If you are
called [a trifling name like] 'Kagetsuna,'be gone!"
One named one's name also to make sure that the opponentwas about
equal in status. When an underlingchallenged a high noble to battle, he
had to apologize, "Though I am a nobody, . . . ."39 For if a nobleman
were to fight a lowly nameless opponent, victory broughtlittle glory and
defeat broughtgreat shame. Thus in the Heike monogatari,Tairano Noritsune is admonished, "Don't slaughterso many base foes; you'll only add
to your sins." That persuadedhim to go after the enemy general. Conversely, Minamotono Yoshinakais urgedto flee for his life, not fight to the
death, because: "It would be a ghastly disgraceif you are cut off by the foe
and slain by some base underling."40
At lower levels of early medieval society as well, the only avenue of
social mobility was to acquirea "name" from the court. A provincialwarrior or other local notable would typically travel "up to" Kyoto and serve
as a gate-keeper or watchguardat the imperial palace, or (as in Tameyoshi's case) as a police constable in some part of the capital city, or as
a menial in some nobleman's household. In return, that "person who
served" (samurai) received from the imperialcourta low-rankingtitle that
he proudly retained for life and "named" as part of his name-such as
"Middle Palace Guard" (bei), "Outer Palace Guard" (emon), or "Assistant" (suke).
To high-ranking Kyoto nobility, of course, a base title name like
"Rokubei" would evoke contempt. Yet even this lowly imperial title lent
the menial an auraof nobility afterhe had completedhis stint of service at
the capital and returned"down to" the provinces. His title name enabled
him to contractan advantageousmarriage,form alliances with local magnates, occupy privileged shrine or temple posts, and raise his social prestige in other ways. Medievaldocumentsshow thatthe heads of local shrine
guilds (miyaza) assumed imperialtitle names such as "U-majiro," "Sec38. ToyodaTakeshi, Myoji no rekishi (Tokyo:Chiiko Shinsho, 1971), p. 39.
39. Mono sono mono niwa aranedomo. See Nagazumi and Shimada, eds., Hogen monogatari, Heiji monogatari, p. 363.
40. TakagiIchinosukeet al., eds., Nihon kotenbungakutaikei33: Heike monogatarige
(Tokyo: IwanamiShoten, 1960), pp. 340 and 180.
36
Journal of Japanese Studies
ond in Chargeof the RightDivision, Palace Bureauof Horses," or "Gonsuke," "ProvisionalAssistant." Some people combined these title names
with imperiallineage names, as in "Gen-nai," a contractionof "Genji no
U-doneri," or "HouseholdServantof the Minamoto."41In latereras, this
practice of adopting imperial title names would be diffused even further
throughsociety, admittedlywith some diminutionin socio-politicalvalue.
But a certainprestige factorremained.
Originally,courtrankandoffice weredistinguished,anda strictrank-tooffice concordancewas followed underthe ritsuryosystem. For example,
Minamoto no Tameyoshi'stitle of "Police Lieutenant"in the Kebiishicho
was distinct from, but pegged to, Senior Sixth Rank.42Initialappointments
and all promotionsor demotions of officials were supposedto conform so
that, for example, a GrandMinisterof State (Dajodaijin) would also hold
Senior First Rank. "Highest" nobles were the kugy6, who held RanksOne
throughThree. "High" nobles held RanksFourand Five. "Lesser" nobles
held Ranks Six to Ten. And each noble simultaneouslyheld an office corresponding to his rank. The key cut-off points, then, were Ranks Three
and Five.
An imperial audience in the Courtiers'Hall of the Inner Palace, the
honor known as shoden, was a privilege reservedfor the highest and high
nobility, collectively called "the HeavenlyExalted"(tenjobito).Minamoto
no Yoshie (1039-1106), later reveredas the tutelarydeity of all warriors,
was the first memberof his class to win this privilege. But first he had to
achieve the meritoriousexploit of quelling revolts on Japan'snortheastern
frontier. Naturally,the high and highest nobles bitterlyopposed allowing
an imperialaudienceto anyoneof such mean status, and they hatchedplots
to thwartthis encroachmenton their position at court.43But warriorsand
commonersin the following centurieswould considerthis privilege of imperial audience at the InnerPalace one of the greatestpossible honors that
bestowed immense social prestige.
This craving for the prestige derived from court rank and office and
from a real or pseudo blood link with the imperialhouse intensifiedover
time among warriors,as these honorsgraduallybecame accessible to those
in the lower strataof society. Up throughthe Kamakuraera, the court no41. Sonobe Toshiki, "Chusei sonrakuni okeru miyaza toyaku to mibun," in Nihonshi
kenkyu,No. 325 (September1989), pp. 47-82. "U-doneri"is a contractionof "uchi-doneri,"
hence, the "nai."
42. Wada Hidematsu (Tokoro Isao, ed.), Shintei kanshokuy6kai (Tokyo: Kodansha
Bunko, 1983), pp. 150-53. First publishedin 1902 and since revised, this work remainsthe
best general introductionto Japanesecourt ranksand titles.
43. For oppositionto Minamotono Yoshiie'simperialaudiencein 1078, see the Chuyuki
diary entry by Nakamikadono Munetadaquotedin TakeuchiRizo, Nihon no rekishi6: Bushi
no t6oj (Tokyo:Chuo Koronsha, 1965), pp. 211-12.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
37
bility bound warriorsto low rank. But not only that, Kamakura-erawarriors themselves remainedwithin their humble limits for fear of divine retribution. Given the pervasivefear of gods and buddhascharacterizingthe
early medieval era, warriorsthought it prudentto heed the Heike monogatari's admonitionthat "the gods permitno irreverentambitions"(hirei).
Many of them truly believed that the Tairaclan fell because Kiyomori ignored Shigemori'splea to "observe the reverentdecorum[reigi] that precludes disobeying an imperial edict." As the Priest Saiko charged, Kiyomori had "oversteppedhis family's bounds by advancing to [Rank One
and] the post of GrandMinisterof State."44
Relatively few Kamakura-erawarriorstook court rankand office title,
and both bakufuand court authorizationwere needed for them to do so.
Their ranks were low, mainly Rank Six or below, and their offices were
limited to military, not civil, posts. The Hojo regents, for instance, contented themselves with JuniorFourthRank. Even the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo accepted nothing higher than Junior Third Rank and
the military post "Major Captain in the Right Division, Imperial Palace
Guard" (udaisho). But nevertheless, KitabatakeChikafusa (1293-1354)
arguedthatthe Minamotofell by 1219, afterbut threegenerations,because
of Yoritomo's impudent craving for a high court rank forbidden to his
status.45
By Muromachiand Sengoku times, however,the warriorclass had lost
many of its earlier inhibitions, so rank- and title-inflationbecame more
acute. It is in this sense, then, thatthe age was characterizedby "the lowly
overcomingthe exalted," or gekokuj6.Upstartwarriorsdirectlypetitioned
the court for high rank and for prestigious civil offices, not just military
posts which were their due. Thus, M6ri Motonari(1497-1571) in 1560 acquired the title "Master of the Imperial Palace Kitchen," or Daizen no
daibu.46And until the Meiji Restoration,Choshu'sdaimyo would be addressed as "Daizen-dono." Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, after becoming Chief
44. For hirei, see Takagiet al. eds., Nihon koten bungakutaikei 32: Heike monogatari
j6 (Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1959), p. 122, in the context of Fujiwarano Narichika'scoveting
of high rank;and also p. 172, in the context of Kiyomori'sdisrespectfor exemperorGoshirakawa. For reigi in Shigemori'sadmonition,see ibid., p. 172. This indicatesthat in medieval
Japan,the Chinese concept of li meantspecificallyobservingone's inferiorstatus. For Saiko's
indictmentof Kiyomori, see ibid., p. 155;and also, HiroshiKitagawaand BruceT. Tsuchida,
tr., The Tale of the Heike (Tokyo:Universityof Tokyo Press, 1975), Vol. 1, p. 92.
45. Jinn6 shotoki completed in 1339. Iwasa Tadashiet al., eds., Nihon koten bungaku
taikei 87: Jinn6 shotoki, Masukagami(Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1965), pp. 177-79; H. Paul
Varley, tr., A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns (New York:Columbia University Press,
1980), pp. 249 and 253.
46. Arai Hakuseki, Dokushiyoron, in MatsumuraAkira et al., eds., Nihon shiso taikei
35: Arai Hakuseki(Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1975), p. 414; Joyce Ackroyd, tr., Lessonsfrom
History (St. Lucia: Universityof QueenslandPress, 1982), p. 281.
38
Journal of Japanese Studies
(ch6ja) of the Genji, deprived the Nakanoin and Kuga court families of
their titles, "Chief Abbot [betto] of the Junnaand ShogakuMonasteries."
Yoshimitsuclimbed to the pinnacle of success-Grand Minister of State
with Senior First Rank. But he, after all, was still an authenticMinamoto
descendant of EmperorSeiwa. By contrast, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and their ilk bought or forged genealogies to establish the
imperiallineages needed for high rankand office. Exemplifying gekokujo
at its sublime worst, Ieyasu engaged in dextrous genealogical acrobatics
to claim descent from both the Fujiwaraand Minamotoas circumstances
required.47
Some daimyo, such as Oda Nobunaga (1534-82), did return their
higher-levelranksor titles to the court;yet this shouldbe seen as a genuine
act of deference ratherthan an attemptto createtheirown legitimacy apart
from the imperial court.48Many of Hideyoshi's daimyo vassals attained
Ranks Two and Three and correspondingGreat and Middle Counsellor
status; they included Tokugawa,Maeda, Ukita, Mori, Uesugi, Date, and
Shimazu. By 1588, as many as 23 daimyo had gained JuniorFourthRank
Lower Level with ImperialCourt Chamberlain(jiju) status. In that year,
they were presented before EmperorGo-Y6zei at Hideyoshi's Jurakutei
Castle, where he extractedoaths of fealty from them in exchange for this
honor of an imperialaudience.49
ImperialHonors and TokugawaDaimyo
Tokugawa Ieyasu, then, was but one of many equally high-ranking
daimyo in 1600; and after his victory at Sekigaharahe naturallywantedto
elevate his house above his daimyo rivals. But he could not take away the
high courtranksand titles alreadygrantedto them. This issue was resolved
to a large extent in 1614-15, when Ieyasucrushedthe Toyotomi-ledforces
at Osaka. That eliminated many of his high-rankingrivals and also gave
him an excuse for confiscating, reducing, or relocatingfiefs held by those
47. WatanabeYosuke, "Tokugawa-shino seishi ni tsuite," in Shigakuzasshi, Vol. 30,
No. 11 (November 1919), pp. 17-34.
48. Cf. Herman Ooms, TokugawaIdeology (Princeton:Princeton University Press,
1985), pp. 28-29 and 168-69. This warrior act of returningrank or title goes back to
Minamotono Tameyoshiand should not be seen as a rejectionof imperialhonoritself. These
daimyo did not returnall of their ranksor titles; they retainedlower-levelones deemed more
suited to warriorhouses.
49. Kida Sadakichi, "Daimyo," in Nihon Rekishi Chiri Gakkai, ed., Edo jidai shiron
(Tokyo: Nihon Tosho Sentaa reprint, 1976), pp. 556-64. Those withoutthe ImperialCourt
Chamberlaintitle received that of Minor Captain(shdsh6), which was of equivalentstatus.
See MiyazawaSeiichi, "Bakuhansei-tekibuke kan'i no seiritsu," in Shikan, No. 100 (March
1979), p. 49.
Wakabayashi: Imperial Sovereignty
39
rivals who remained. But he, Hidetada, and Iemitsu also overhauledthe
existing ritsury6 system of imperial honors in a manneradvantageousto
the Tokugawafamily.
First, they cut off other daimyo from Kyoto by creatinga bakufumonopoly on the right to petition for prestigiouscourt ranksand titles, which
all daimyo continuedto covet. Second, these three shogun elevated Tokugawa statusrelativeto otherdaimyo in the landby grantinghigh rankto the
newly created Tokugawashimpan. The traditionalritsuryo rank and title
system was not a crusty relic that the shogun had to tolerate and work
around. Instead, they shrewdlyexploited it to consolidatetheirpower over
the realm.50
In 1606, Edo first orderedthat warriorscould gain court rank and title
only by bakufupetition. Later, in 1611and 1615, the bakufudecreed that
warriorsbe deleted from imperialcourtrosters:"Officesandranksfor warriors are to be apartfrom [similar] court offices for nobles." This meant
that warriorsand courtierscould hold ranksof the same number(e.g., junior third lower level) and titles of the same name (e.g., Middle Counsellor). But they did so underdifferentjurisdictions:Edo and Kyoto.5'
This decree did not createa totally separateset of meritrankssolely for
warriors, as Ogyu Sorai and Arai Hakuseki would later propose.52But it
did end the right of otherdaimyo to petitionfor rankand title directly;and
because it assumed that Edo could meddle in court affairsor punish court
nobles at will, nothingmore seemed necessary.Thereafter,the courtwould
50. These paragraphson Tokugawa-eradaimyohouse-rankingsderive from: Matsudaira
Hideharu, "Daimy6 kakaku-seini tsuite no mondaiten," in Tokugawarinseishi kenkyvsho
kenkyukiy6 (1973), pp. 237-54; Kida, "Daimy6;" FukayaKatsumi, "Ry6shu kenryokuto
buke 'kan'i,'" in Fukayaand Kat6 Eiichi, eds., KozaNihon kinseishi1: Bakuhanseikokkano
seiritsu (Tokyo: Yuikaku, 1981);Fukaya, "Kinsei no sh6gun to tenno," in RekishigakuNihonshi Kenkyukai, ed., K6za Nihon rekishi 6: Kinsei 2, pp. 45-77; Fukaya, "Bakuhansei
kokka to tenno," pp. 260-73; Miyazawa, "Bakuhansei-kino tenn6 no ideorogiitekikiban,"
pp. 190-219; Miyazawa, "Bakuhansei-tekibuke kan'i no seiritsu;" Asao Naohiro, "Bakuhansei to tenn6," in Hara Hidesabur6et al., eds., TaikeiNihon kokkashi3: Kinsei (Tokyo:
Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1975), pp. 189-222; Kodama K6ta, Nihon no rekishi 18:
Daimyo (Tokyo:Sh6gakkan, 1975), pp. 186-224; Niimi Kichiji, "Bushi no mibunto shokusei," in Shinji Yoshimoto, ed., Edo jidai bushi no seikatsu (Tokyo: Yuzankaku, 1966),
pp. 7-52; and Mizubayashi Takeshi, "Bakuhan taisei ni okeru k6gi to ch6tei," in Asao
Naohiro et al., eds., Nihon no shakaishi3: Ken'i to shihai (Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1983),
pp. 120-58.
51. Fukaya, "Ry6shu kenryokuto buke 'kan'i,'"'pp. 276-311.
52. Kate Wildman Nakai, Shogunal Politics (Cambridge:HarvardUniversity Press,
1988), pp. 175-76 and 179-82; Ooms, TokugawaIdeology, p. 169. For the original sources,
see Arai Hakuseki, "Buke kan'i sh6zoku ko," in Ichijima Kenkichi, ed., Arai Hakuseki
zenshu (Tokyo:n.p., 1907), Vol. 6, pp. 472-73; Ogyu Sorai, "Seidan," in YoshikawaK6jir6
et al., eds., Nihon shis6 taikei 36: OgytiSorai (Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1973), pp. 347-50.
40
Journal of Japanese Studies
find it virtuallyimpossible to refuse a bakufupetitioneitherto grantor revoke imperial rank and title. Until 1865, as we shall see, the most that
Kyoto could do in protest against a bakufupetition was to stall; or, in an
extreme case, the emperorcould threatento abdicate. But neither tactic
was a very effective means of assertingimperialpolitical will.
This calculatedshufflingof daimyo house-rankingsto maximize Tokugawa prestigewas largely completedby the end of Ietsuna'sshogunalreign
in 1680. Historiansdo not agree in all particularsabout who held which
ranks, mainly because changes occurredin the system over time. But such
qualificationsaside, daimyo house-rankingsbecame indexed to court rank
and title roughly as follows.
Only Tokugawashogun could rise to Ranks Two and One, but Rank
The shogunwere stronglyconOne was normallygrantedposthumously.53
scious of themselves as heads of the nation's supreme warrior house,
and they wished to differentiatethemselves from Tairano Kiyomori and
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had gone on to become courtiers. So they deferredto the court by declining to claim RankOne with GrandMinisterof
State status while alive. Instead, they claimed lesser court titles-deemed
appropriateto warrior houses-that their putative Minamoto forebears,
Minamoto no Yoritomoand Ashikaga Yoshimitsu,had held. Thus, each
shogunal heir received the titles "Chief Abbot of the Junnaand Shogaku
Monasteries" and "MajorCaptainin the Right Division, ImperialPalace
Guard," which went with Ministerof the Right status. These were just as
importantas the title "shogun," which traditionallywent to the head of
Japan'swarriorhouses (buke no t6ryo). It is in this context, then, that we
must analyzedisputesamonghistoriansaboutwhetheror not the emperor's
grantingof the shogunaltitle constitutedan "investiture"of power to Tokugawa rulers.
The newly createdTokugawashimpanof Kii, Owari, Mito, and (in the
eighteenth century) Hitotsubashi, Tayasu, and Shimizu were permitted
promotion to Ranks Two and Three. As such, the Tokugawamain and
branch families displaced powerful tozama rivals such as Maeda, Shimazu, Mori, and Date, who had enjoyed Ranks Two and Three under
Hideyoshi. These powerfulcastle-holdingtozamawere permittedto attain
Rank Four at most underthe new order,thoughMaeda was allowed occasional promotionto JuniorThirdRank.
Key bakufuofficials-such as the tairo and roju, Keepers of Osaka
Castle, Kyoto Deputies, or Masters of Court Ceremonial-held Junior
FourthRank Lower Level and the titles ImperialCourtChamberlain(jiju)
53. Only one Tokugawashogun received RankOne while alive: lenari (r. 1787-1837).
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
41
or Minor Captainin the ImperialPalace Guard(sh6sho). This meant that
those fudai daimyo or direct Tokugawavassals who conducted high-level
bakufuadministrationenjoyed a lower court rank and title than powerful
tozamarivals, such as Date, Maeda, Shimazu, and Mori. Finally, the great
majorityof daimyo, those with small domains lacking castles or with low
fief yields, held Rank Five. Ranks and titles constantly reminded each
daimyo of his properplace in the socio-political hierarchy,for he had to
use these imperialhonorificswheneverhe introducedhimself to and spoke
with or about others, or wheneverhe signed or addresseddocuments.
Thus, the eight Tokugawamain and collateralhouses, plus Maeda, monopolized warrior kugy6 status as "highest" nobility. The death of their
daimyo was denoted by the honorific term kokyo; lesser-rankingdaimyo
had to settle for sokkyo.54Thus the main cut-off point in warriornobility
underthe Tokugawasystem was Lower FourthRank with ImperialCourt
Chamberlain(jiju) status;anyone below, even a daimyo, did not count for
much. A daimyo of Rank Fouror above traveled"up to" Kyoto to receive
his titles directly from the court. A daimyo of Rank Five or below had to
receive these throughthe bakufu'sMasterof CourtCeremonial(koke).
By its very nature,the post of ImperialCourtChamberlainassumedthe
privilege of imperialaudiencein the InnerPalace;thatis why it had always
been a high civil post not open to warriorsin ancient and medieval times.
But as Kaiho Seiryo (1755-1817) noted in 1806, high bakufuofficials such
as roju, and especially the Kyoto Deputy, assertedthat they requiredthis
prestigiousrankand title because theirduties entailedimperialaudiences.55
So bakufuofficials saw themselves as carryingon certainkey elements of
the old ritsuryi bureaucraticorder.56Finally, advancingfrom Rank Five to
Four meant that a daimyo left the Hall of Willows audience room in Edo
Castle for the more esteemed GreatChamber.
This daimyo house-rankingsystem became fixed by about 1680, with
Hitotsubashi,Shimizu, and Tayasuaddedin the next century.Each daimyo
54. Ritsury6 laws, adoptedfrom the Book of Rites, prescribeddifferenthonorificcharactersto write "death"based on the deceased noble'scourtrank:Foremperors,h6; for Ranks
Three and up, k6; for Ranks Four and Five, sotsu; and for Rank Six down through commoners, shi. These remainedin effect during Tokugawatimes. See Inoue Mitsusadaet al.,
eds., Nihon shis6 taikei 3: Ritsury6(Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1976), p. 438. The use of h6 to
signify the emperor'sdeath remainspartof ImperialHousehold Law today, and the decision
to obey it in January1989 caused considerablefuror among the media. See Sekai, No. 525
(March 1989), p. 346.
55. Kaiho Seiry6, "Tijin," in TakimotoSeiichi, ed., Nihon keizai taiten (Tokyo:Meiji
Bunken, 1969), p. 631.
56. Miyazawa Seiichi in particularstresses this continuity between the ritsury6 and
bakuhanstatus systems. See his "Bakuhansei-tekibuke kan'i no seiritsu," pp. 43-57.
42
Journal of Japanese Studies
would begin at the rankprescribedfor his house. A normalone-notchpromotion usually took place when he reachedhis majority;another,perhaps,
afterhe died. Meanwhile, his heir was startingthe process anew at the rank
originally prescribed for that house. Any non-regularpromotions apart
from the above requiredspecialjustification,and these too were limited to
one generation. For example, the bakufuin 1710 and 1713 petitionedthe
imperial court to promote Satsuma'sShimazu Yoshitakato Senior Fourth
Rankas a rewardfor his meritoriousexploit in bringingRyukyuemissaries
to attendshogunalaccession ceremoniesat Edo Castle.57
Thoughonly temporary,such extraordinarypromotionswere objectsof
intense rivalry among powerful daimyo, as between Date and Shimazu
over Senior FourthRank. Daimyo cravedpromotionbecause statusdistinctions among them-their types of dress, houses, and carriages;their audience room in Edo Castle;theirprocessionaccoutrements;their spoken and
written forms of address; even their handwritingand envelope-folding
styles-all varied with court rankand title.
Nambu Shigenobuis a case in point. Althoughthe Nambuhouse originally held RankFour, it suffereddemotionto RankFive as punishmentfor
lacking an heir. But at TokugawaIetsuna's1682 memorialservice, a sudden shower threatened to douse Shogun Tsunayoshi-until Shigenobu
leapt to the rescue with an umbrella.Tsunayoshirewardedthis meritorious
exploit by petitioningto restoreRankFour;and Nambushed tearsof gratitude, swearing "to serve faithfullyto repaythis greatblessing." He sent an
envoy to Kyoto to receive his rankfromthe courtand duly presented3,000
ry6 in "thankyou" monies. Nambu'sfief yield remainedat 80,000 koku.
But he gladly acceptedthe militarycorvee requirementfor a 100,000 koku
daimyo-a 25 per cent increaseentailedby his new rank. This promotion
was a matterof great pride to the Nambuhousemenas well, for they construed it as public recognitionthat they were conductingvirtuousgovernment in their domain.58
Whenevera regularor extraordinarypromotiontook place, the daimyo
in question provided "thankyou" monies to the roju in Edo and to court
nobles in Kyoto. The amountswere more or less agreedon, as with Japanese gift-giving on special occasions today. But the roju, after all, had to
be persuadedto petition on a certain daimyo'sbehalf, so they were quite
open to bribery,as in the case of SanadaYukihiro.In 1783, Sanadareportedly had to pay the roju five to six times more money than Matsudaira
Sadanobupaid for the same court rank.59The imperial family and court
57. Kida, "Daimyo," p. 562; Kodama,Daimy6, pp. 212-13.
58. Fukaya, "Kinsei no shogun to tenno," pp. 61-62.
59. Kodama, Daimyd, p. 189; MatsudairaSadanobu, Uge no hitokoto, Shugyoroku
(Tokyo: IwanamiBunko, 1942), pp. 56-57.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
43
nobles in Kyoto, too, profitedhandsomelyfrom such thanksgivingat promotion time, and much of their income in the early modernera no doubt
came from such concealed sources. Unlike the daimyo, they bore no outlays for alternateattendanceor corvee duty, so they may have been less
grounddown by poverty than we usually assume.60
Imperialcourt ranksand titles were of prime importancebecause these
indicated gradationsof intra- and inter-class status recognized throughout Japan. Of course, court rank and title were not the only measures of
daimyo status in the early modern period. Indeed, there were numerous
similar indices of prestige. Imperialrank and title were linked with these
other status indicators,such as domain size, castle-holding, fief yield, use
of the Tokugawa'sold "Matsudaira"surname,the right to shogunal audiences, and blood ties to the shogunalhouse. Thus, Maedanot only boasted
the highest court rank among non-Tokugawacastle-holding daimyo, he
also had the nation'slargestsingle-domainfief yield of just over 1.2 million
kokuand enjoyed close marriageties to the shogunalhouse.
But as MatsudairaHideharuand (much earlier) Kida Sadakichi have
stressed, court rank and title took precedenceover other status indicators.
That explains why Kira Yoshinakacould treat Asano Naganori with utter
contempt in the Ako (or Chushingura)Incident. Asano, a 53,000-koku
castle-holdingdaimyo, held JuniorFifth RankLowerLevel. Kiraheld neither a castle nor a domain and was not a daimyo, but he boasted Junior
Fourth Rank and the court title of Minor Captainin the Imperial Palace
Guard plus the bakufu post of Master of Court Ceremonial. So Kira's
higher court rank and title permittedhim to bully subordinateswith impunity, especially when his expertise in court ritual was needed.61
The shogunal family grantedits old Matsudairasurname(and pseudoMinamoto lineage) to certain powerful tozama in addition to Tokugawa
blood relatives and vassals, and these families combined it with imperial
office titles in their names. For example, the formervassals of Hideyoshi,
Shimazu Tadatsune and Date Masamune, had previously gone by the
names "Hashiba [i.e., Toyotomi] Shosho" and "HashibaEchizen." But
after destroying the Toyotomi, leyasu grantedthe Matsudairasurnameto
these two tozama and decreed that they use it, not their real surnames, in
public.62Thus, the Bakumatsufigures whom we modernhistorianscite as
60. Ueno Hideharu, "Tokugawajidai no buke kan'i," in Rekishi k(ron, No. 107 (October 1984), pp. 106-12; Ueno, "Kinsei t6sh6 no horyo ni tsuite," Nihon rekishi, No. 464
(February1987), pp. 79-83.
61. Matsudaira, "Daimyo kakaku-sei ni tsuite no mondai-ten," p. 237; Kida, "Daimyo," p. 562.
62. FukuzawaYukichi noted that the Hosokawa were reportedlyexceptional in having
declined to use the Matsudairasurname. See Bummeironno gairyakuin Fukuzawa Yukichi
44
Journal of Japanese Studies
ShimazuNariakiraand Date Yoshikuniactuallywere addressedat thattime
as "MatsudairaSatsumano kami" and "MatsudairaMutsu no kami," literally, "Provincial Governors of Satsuma and Mutsu," usually without
their given names.63This held for their vassals too: a Date retainerannounced himself as "XX, Houseman of ProvincialGovernorof Mutsu,
Matsudaira"(but a daimyo's title usually did not correspondto his domain's geographic location). Choshu's M6ri Takachikawas called "MatsudairaDaizen no daibu," or "Master of the Imperial Palace Kitchen,
Matsudaira"from 1837, when he received Junior Fourth Rank Lower
Level. But after the 1864 ForbiddenGate Incident, Edo punished Takachika by rescindinghis Matsudairasurnameand makingthe imperialcourt
take away his rank, though he did remain Masterof the ImperialPalace
Kitchen.64
However, the court turnedanti-bakufuin 1865. Supportedby Choshu
and sensing an upsurgein samurailoyalism, it punishedthe r6ju Abe Masato and MatsumaeTakahiro,who had opened Hyogo to Westernersdespite imperial protests. EmperorK6mei stripped Abe and Matsumaeof
their court ranksand provincial-governortitles of Bungo no kami and Izu
no kami; and he orderedEdo to consign them to retirementin their home
domains. Bakufuofficials in Osaka were appalled, saying: "for the imperial court to dismiss Edo officials directly is unprecedented;clearly, this
is oppression towardthe bakufu."65 And they were right. K6mei's order
flouted Tokugawa decrees, enforced since 1611, stipulatingthat warrior
ranksand titles were beyond Kyoto'sjurisdiction.
Here was a powerful new sanction the court could apply in asserting
its political will and authority.What the emperorand court had always
grantedinvoluntarily,they now presumedto revoke as they saw fit. From
thatpoint on, warriorcourtranksand titles became more thanjust nominal
zenshfi (Tokyo: Kei6 Gijuku, 1959), p. 167; David A. Dilworth and G. Cameron Hurst,
tr., An Outline of a Theory of Civilization(Tokyo: Sophia UniversityPress, 1973), p. 155.
But MaruyamaMasao submits the plausible explanationthat the Hosokawa declined more
out of modesty, rather than from a spirit of independenceand self-respect, as Fukuzawa
suggests. See Maruyama,Bummeironno gairyaku o yomu (ge) (Tokyo: IwanamiShinsho,
1986), p. 162.
63. On this switch from Hashibato Matsudaira,see documentsin Nihon Rekishigakkai,
ed., EnshCikomonjosen: Kinsei hen (Tokyo:YoshikawaK6bunkan,1971), pp. 154 and 158.
64. TanabeTa'ichi, Bakumatsugaikodan II (Tokyo: T6y6 Bunko, 1966), p. 223, endnote by the editor, SakataSeiichi. Takachikahad also been grantedone kanji from the shogun's name Ieyoshi, and so had been called Yoshichika.The bakufutook away this honor as
well, and Mori thereforewent back to being Mori Daizen no Daibu Taka-chika.
65. Shibusawa Eiichi, TokugawaYoshinobuko den III (Tokyo: T6y6 Bunko, 1967),
pp. 183-86; see also ConradTotman, The Collapse of the TokugawaBakufu(Honolulu:University of Hawaii Press, 1980), pp. 158-61.
Wakabayashi:Imperial Sovereignty
45
and formalistic. Edo had knuckledunderto imperialwill, and a precedent
was set for TokugawaYoshinobuto returnhis shogunal and other titles to
the court in 1867.
Imperial Honors and TokugawaCommoners
Not only the daimyo and samuraibut classes below them as well elevated their social prestige by gaining court rank and title and by claiming
fictive blood ties with the imperialhouse, especially from the Genrokuera
(1688-1703) onward.66In 1708, the puppeteer Kobayashi Shinsuke
declared:
A man named Jirobei was the first joruri chanterto acquire an imperial
provincial-governmenttitle [zuryo], that of Senior Clerk in the Kawachi
Provincial Government. ... So puppet play chantersare not of the despised classes. Proof for this is that they are summoned to the imperial
court and are awardedimperialprovincialgovernorships.67
Tokugawaentertainersretainedthe stigmaof baseness attachedto theirmedieval shokuninforebears,who, unlike othernon-noblesand non-warriors
of that age, had neither engaged in agriculturenor lived in fixed settlements.68To overcome lingering social discrimination, they acquired or
claimed to have acquired ritsury6 titles from the imperial court. One of
those most commonly claimed was "Secretary (j6) in the Provincial Government of XX," and it was often combined with "-dayu," a title collectively designating holders of the first to fifth court ranks. Joruri chanters,
Kabuki actors, "courtesans" in the gay quarters, sumo wrestlers, and other
entertainers incorporated these honorific titles in their names to become,
for example, Takemoto Harima no j6 Gi-dayu.
Virtually all shokunin came to reside in towns during the Tokugawa
period, so we should perhaps think of these specialist professionals as
"craftmasters." They included joruri chanters, blind usurers, puppeteers, tub- and barrel-makers, metal-smiths, mirror-casters, hunters, woodcarvers, carpenters, hairdressers, confectioners, tea-whisk makers, physi66. Mase Kumiko, "Kinsei no minshuito tenno," in Fujii Shun Sensei Kiju Kinenkai,
ed., Okayamano rekishi to bunka(Okayama:FukutakeShoten, 1983), pp. 229-66; Takano
Toshihiko, "Bakuhantaisei ni okeru kashokuto ken'i," in Asao Naohiro et al., eds., Nihon
no shakaishi 3: Ken'i to shihai (Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1983), pp. 234-76; YamaguchiKazuo, "Shokuninzury6 no kinseitekitenkai," Nihon rekishi, No. 505 (June 1990), pp. 57-74.
67. Quoted by Mase in "Kinsei no minshfuto tenn6," p. 230. For a detailed study of
how joruri players received court rank and office titles, see YasudaTokiko, "Kinsei zuryo
kl," in Kojoruriseihonshu (Tokyo: KadokawaShoten, 1967), Vol. 6, pp. 591-650.
68. On the medieval origins of shokunin, see Amino Yoshihiko, Nihon chtsei no minshizo (Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho, 1980), pp. 105-45, and Nihon chfuseino hi-nogyominto
tenno (Tokyo: IwanamiShoten, 1984), pp. 540-55.
46
Journal of Japanese Studies
cians, yin-yang diviners, sumo wrestlers, and dozens of others. Some of
these shokuninsuffereddiscriminationas belonging to "despised," if not
"outcaste," classes. Like the daimyo, many shokuninlinked their genealogies to royal personages in antiquity.Katsura-me,or itinerantfemale
merchants cum prostitutes, for example, traced their lineage back to the
mythical Empress Jingu, who supposedly conqueredKorea in the third
century.Huntersforged genealogiesto claim descentfromFujiwarano Kamatari(614-69), or EmperorKobun(r. 671-72), or the non-existent"EmperorKorei."69The affirmationof such lower-classsocial climbing by laying false claim to imperial lineages reached extremes in Getsujindo, a
Genrokunovelist who had one of his protagonistsdeclare: "When all is
said and done, we all have identical pedigrees; for, if you go back far
enough, who is not descendedfrom Amaterasu?"70
Not all classes of early moderntownsmenmade such regal claims. As
noted earlier,therewere multiplestructuresof prestigein TokugawaJapan.
Townsmen organized in kabu nakama and other bakufu-sponsoredtrade
associations were more likely to seek privilege and protectionunder the
new bakuhanorderratherthan the hollow ritsuryoorder,especially early
in the period. Some of these merchantsmay have denigratedas anachronistic the prestige that came with imperialpedigreesor court ranks, and
may have defined wealth as the best legitimizerof status. They might declare: "Money determines a merchant'spedigree. Even if a townsman
boasts Fujiwaralineage, and genealogical recordstrace him to Kamatari,
he rates lower than a monkey-trainerif he is poor."71 These are the merchants often cited as TokugawaJapan's"incipientbourgeoisie." But their
pride and spiritof independenceas self-mademen were short-lived.By the
1720s and 1730s, these townsmen seem to have resigned themselves to
their inferiorlot in life beneaththe daimyo and samuraiunderthe existing
order.72
Instead, it was the older shokuninfamilies-those who claimedto have
been established in their professions since medieval times-who tended
to exploit imperialsymbols in orderto enhancetheir social standing. And
69. Mase, "Kinsei no minshuto tenno," p. 255.
70. Getsujindo, Shison daikokubashira,in KokushoKankokai,ed., Tokugawabungei
ruiju (Tokyo:KokushoKankokai, 1970), Vol. 2, p. 514; quotedin MiyazawaSeiichi, "Genrokubunkano seishin kozo," in MatsumotoShiro and YamadaTadao,eds., KozaNihon kinseishi 4: Genroku-Kyohoki no seiji to shakai (Tokyo:Yuikaku, 1980), pp. 242-43.
71. Nihon eitaigura. Noma Koshin, ed., Nihon kotenbungakutaikei48: Saikakusht ge
(Tokyo: IwanamiShoten, 1960), pp. 185-86.
72. See Miyazawa, "Genrokubunkano seishin kozo," p. 244. He holds that after this
eighteenth-centurystatus order became rigid by the 1720s and 1730s, the main rationale
Tokugawa townsmen used to claim social equality was Getsujindo's,cited above: that all
Japanesewere descendedfrom Amaterasu.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
47
shokuninwho belonged to the so-called despised classes were among the
most enthusiasticsupportersof the old ritsuryosystem of honors. Just as
Hideyoshi and Ieyasu had done earlier, the heads of these groups established institutionallinks with court families and fictive blood ties with the
imperialhouse or high Kyoto nobility. They set up nationwideguilds centered on imperiallineages and on courtranksand titles, and theirorganizations closely resembledthe daimyo status hierarchy.These groups further
argued that imperial symbols of legitimizationguaranteedthem monopolies in their trades and other legal privileges and immunities.73
For example, in addition to the entertainersand Katsura-menoted
above, blind usurers were another class who suffered discriminationin
early modernJapan. So the head of the blind usurers'guild forged genealogical records showing descent from "Prince Amayo, the blind son of
EmperorKoko" (r. 884-87). According to these records, Koko granted
Amayo the tax tributefrom three Kyushu provinces which was to be distributed among the blind in the capital region. That practice supposedly
ended some centurieslater. But in returnfor this lost tribute, blind men in
Japan claimed to have gained the privilege of receiving six court ranks:
kengy6, betto, k6oto,zat6, ichina, and han. Each of these ranks was divided into several levels, for a total of 73 grades in all.
The blind men argued that their guild's commercial ventures enjoyed
imperialsanctionbecause the interestaccruingfrom monies they lent went
to pay for court ranks granted by the Great Counsellor Kuga family in
Kyoto. Due to the august majesty that their ranks and divine lineage accorded, these usurersfelt free to threatenor publicly humiliatea daimyo or
samuraiwho failed to repay his loan. Not content with that, they tried to
exploit this imperialawe so as to exempt themselvesfrom prosecutionafter
violating bakufuor domain laws againstracketeering,gambling, and other
forms of wrongdoing.74Their impudencepromptedthe sardonicand passionately pro-bakufuBuy6 Inshi (literally"the Recluse of SouthMusashi")
to decry: "Imperialcourt rank is a device for making all people insolent,
not just clerics and blind men; it is a poison that ruins men and plunders
society."
75
In the early seventeenthcentury, Edo cut daimyo off from Kyoto in
orderto preventthem from obtainingranksand titles directlyfrom the im73. Mase, "Kinsei no minshfito tenn6," pp. 229-66; Miyaji Masato, Tennoseino seijishi-teki kenkyt (Tokyo:AzekuraShobo, 1981), pp. 17-66; and Takano, "Bakuhantaisei ni
okeru kashokuto ken'i," pp. 234-76.
74. TakayanagiKaneyoshi, Edo jidai gokenin no seikatsu (Tokyo: Yuizankaku,1966),
pp. 92-97; Ishii Ry6suke, Shimpen Edo jidai mampitsu ge (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha,
1979), pp. 214-23.
75. Buy6 Inshi, Seji kembun roku, in HaradaTomohiko et al., eds., Nihon shomin
seikatsu shiry6 shusei (Tokyo: San'ichi Shobo, 1979), Vol. 8, p. 692.
48
Journal of Japanese Studies
perial court; and in the eighteenthcentury,Edo tried to cut townsmen off
from Kyoto for similarreasons. Beginningin 1707, the bakufuorderedthat
title names grantedto townsmenbe limited to one generationand forbade
the transferof these imperialhonorsto otherpersons. In 1767, Edo issued a
nationwideedict that requiredpublic registrationof title names and urged
all domains to issue similar edicts; and two years later, 521 names were
listed for the city of Edo. In 1770, the bakufurequiredthat commoners
obtain official consent before applying for court titles. By the nineteenth
century, however, the situationwas clearly out of hand. In additionto legitimate title names actually grantedby the court, so many of these were
falsely assumedthatfurtherattemptsto controlor restrictthe practicewere
abandonedas futile.76
Emperorsappearin 33 of Chikamatsu'shistoricalplays, which literary
and cultural historians label "tenno dramas."77Each play in the genre
opens with praise for virtuous imperial reigns of bygone eras. In one,
Y6meitenno shokuninkagami (1705), the recently deceased "Thirty-first
EmperorBidatsu" (r. 572-85) is lauded for his "augustbenevolence" in
having granted imperial provincial-officetitles (zuryo) to craftmastersin
variousprofessions. Outof reverentgratitude,the shokuninbackhis chosen
heir in the ensuing succession struggle. Armedwith the tools of theircrafts
and led by "Kumaheithe tub-maker,"they do battle against the wicked
Prince Yamabikoin supportof the good PrinceToyohi-kazan,who accedes
as EmperorY6mei due to their valorousexploits.78
Chikamatsu'sstory is fictionaland full of anachronisms,such as placing Genroku-erashokuninin a sixth-centurysetting and havingthem stage
an uchikowashi-styleuprising. But this play and his other popular tenno
dramas raise the possibility.that certain segments of eighteenth-century
Japanesetownsfolk, especially in the Kyoto-Osakaregion, yearned after
the imperialvirtue supposedlydispensed in antiquity,and that these commoners might imagine themselves forming illegal militia-like political
bands to fight for a loyalist cause.
ImperialHonors: The Modern Transformation
Thus, in early modernJapan,the emperorand courtretainedsovereign
authorityin certain key respects. The emperor'spurportedlydivine status
permittedhim and his court to awardnationallyrecognized honors in the
76. Mase, "Kinsei no minshuto tenno," pp. 245-48.
77. For one example translatedin English, see SusanMatisoff, TheLegendof Semimaru
(New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1978), pp. 204-72. For a recent study of the genre,
see MoriyamaShigeo, Chikamatsuno tenno geki (Tokyo:San'ichiShobo, 1981);for an older
study, Kitani Hogin, Chikamatsuno tennr geki (Tokyo:TanseidoShuppan, 1947).
78. Shuzui Kenji and OkuboTadakuni,eds., Nihon koten bungakutakei 50: Chikamatsu joruri shu ge (Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1959), pp. 58-120.
Wakabayashi: Imperial Sovereignty
49
form of imperial ranks, office titles, and pseudo-lineagesthat were incorporated in personal "names." Certainlyby Bakumatsutimes, use of the
Matsudairasurnamewas seen as having createdfictive blue-bloodties between the imperialand court families, shogunalhouse, bakufubannermen,
and certainfudai and tozama daimyo. This was because the MatsudairaTokugawaclaimed direct descent from EmperorSeiwa and, by extension,
the Sun Goddess Amaterasuwho had foundedthe imperialline.
The shogunal house reinforcedits blue-blood link in every generation
from Iemitsu onward by procuringwives and consorts from the imperial
family or high-rankingKyoto nobility.79The Tokugawashimpan and tozama daimyo followed this example. As W. G. Beasley notes, Mito (Tokugawa) Nariaki counted among his in-laws the Nijo and Takatsukasacourt
families, the HitotsubashiCollateral House, and the Tottori, Okayama,
Uwajima, and Sendai daimyo. Such daimyo-courtiermarriageand adoption ties cut across tozama and shogunal house lines and helped create a
feeling of imperialkinshipamong membersof Japan'supperclasses.80That
strengthenedBakumatsuproto-nationalismand laid socio-political bases
for fostering the kokutai myth of a divinely descended, extended-family
state in modern Japan.8'
The bases for this family state were not limited to the ruling classes,
though. Before the Dawn, based on the life of ShimazakiT6son's father,
shows that this same feeling of racial kinship-centered on real or fictive
imperial blood ties-also extended to the gono class in Japan'scountryside. When YamagamiShichirozaemonof Sagami, a totalstranger,chanced
to visit the Aoyama (Shimazaki)residence in Shinano, he noted that the
two households boasted identical family crests and knew immediatelythat
they shared a common ancestor. Their genealogical records showed that
the YamagamiandAoyamabothweredescendedfromthe Miuraof Sagami,
who, in turn, stemmed from Taira no Yoshishige, four generations removed from EmperorKammu.82It is also worth noting that, as late as the
mid-nineteenthcentury,personalnamessuffixedby the court-title"-dayu,"
79. But this stratagemdid not work as well as the Tokugawahad hoped. Only one offspring from such a match between the shogunal and court families survived to become
shogun-Ieharu (r. 1760-86). See Moriya Takehisa, "Edo to Kyoto no kon'in," Rekishi
koron, No. 107 (October 1984), pp. 113-16.
80. W. G. Beasley, Select Documentson JapaneseForeignPolicy, 1853-1868 (London:
Oxford UniversityPress, 1955), p. 11.
81. This web of Bakumatsudaimyo adoptionsand inter-marriagesproducedsomething
similar to the Europeannobility as late as 1914. Cousins KaiserWilhelm and Czar Nicholas,
after all, were grandsonsof Queen Victoria and spoke English when they met.
82. See Nihon no bungaku 7: ShimazakiT6son (II) (Tokyo: Chuo Koronsha, 1967),
pp. 62-64 and 87-92; William E. Naff, tr., Before the Dawn (Honolulu:Universityof Hawaii Press, 1987), pp. 64-67 and 87-91. See also Nihon rekishi daijiten (Tokyo: Kawade
Shobo, 1972), Vol. 9, p. 3.
50
Journal of Japanese Studies
such as Kudayfi,were held by "only two people in the eleven post stations
of Kiso," and that this rarehonorsparked"dayi-conceit" (dayujiman) in
those who claimed it.83
Japanesepeasants,especially those living in remoteruralareasfar from
Kyoto, may not have known much aboutthe emperoras a personor about
his divine lineage at the time of the Restoration-as Inoue Kiyoshi has argued. But peasants did know about the imperialranks and titles that the
emperorand court bestowed. As Inoue himself asserts, Satsumaand Choshu forces pacifying the Tohokuregion in 1869 had to introducethe emperorto his subjectsand informthem of his pedigreein these terms: "The
emperoris descendedfrom the Sun GoddessAmaterasuand has been master [nushi] of Japansince the world began." But, to explain this notion of
"master" or "sovereign," the Sat-Cho forces had to link that distant emperorwith somethingthat a Tohokupeasantwas alreadyfamiliarwith. So
they continued:"Kami in all provinceshave shrineswith rankssuch as Senior First Rank;these ranksare all grantedby the emperor."84
Courtranksandtitles, plus imperiallineages, servedas indices of exaltedness recognizedthroughoutthe nation, both within and betweenclasses.
As Saikakuput it, "becominga success in life" (shusse) entailed "extraordinary service to one's lord to acquirecourtrank."85Honorific, imperially
granted "names" assumed great significanceunderthe Tokugawasystem
of rigid and all-pervadingstatus distinctionsin life. For daimyo and warriors, earninga name was one of the few ways left to enhancepeer prestige
because battlefieldexploits were impossiblein an era of peace. For certain
groups of commoners, a name guaranteeda monopoly on one's craft and
legal immunitiesfrom bakufuor domainlaw. And for some of the outcaste
or "despised" classes, a name helped one to overcomediscriminatorysocial stigmas. Being famous (yumei) meant to "have a name" granted, if
only formally, by the emperorand court.
By and large, the Edo bakufuexploited to its own advantagethe emperor's function of dispensing national honors throughsuch names. But
after 1868, Japan'ssystem of courtranksand office titles was overhauledto
benefit the nation'snew rulers,just as it had been in the seventeenthcentury. In fact, the Meiji state expanded this system of imperially granted
honors and made it more rational.The new regime abolishedthe separate
83. See Nihon no bungaku7: ShimazakiT6son (I), p. 150, for the original. Naff, who
transcribesthe name as "Kyudayu," interpolatesthat this pride is because "-dayu" was an
"elegant ending." See Before the Dawn, pp. 146-47.
84. "Ou jimmin kokuyu," in YoshinoSakuz6, ed., Meiji bunkazenshu22: Zasshi hen
(Tokyo: Nihon Hyoronsha, 1929), p. 491. Inoue quotes this passage, but tries to make the
opposite argument:that the imperial institutionwas totally unknownto commonersin early
Meiji times. See Inoue, Tenn6sei, pp. 62 and 229.
85. Noma, ed., Nihon eitaigura, p. 116.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
51
category of noble ranksand titles for warriorsthatthe bakufuhad decreed
in 1611;all ranks and titles for Japanesesubjects again came under direct
imperialcourt control.
Court ranks were not only retained, they were awardedposthumously
to persons who had achieved meritoriousexploits leading to the Restoration-as chronicledin Z6i shokenden.In 1884, the old ritsuryotitles such
as Echizen no kami or Harimano j6 were "modernized,"or replaced by
the Europeanpeeragetitles of prince, marquis,count, viscount, and baron.
Also, a system of military and civil decorations(kunsh6) was introduced
thatenabledthe emperorto honorloyal or meritorioussubjects. Many Restoration leaders of low samuraibirth gloried in their early Meiji government posts, such as CourtCouncillor(sangi), or in their newly won court
ranks, such as Senior Fourth,that only the most powerful tozama daimyo
had been privileged to hold a few years before.86
The new system of imperialhonorswas institutedat the local level too,
for early Meiji provincial governorsreceived JuniorFourthRank.87This
equaled the rank that importantbakufuofficials had enjoyed, and it surpassed that which most daimyo had held. A five-tieredsystem of Westernstyle peerage titles came into being in 1884, as noted above. Who received
which title was largely determinedby former fief yields and house rankings; but this new form of imperialhonors also enabledsemi-peasantslike
It6 Hirobumito presentthemselvesas "PrinceIto." Membersof the hereditary peerage were appointedby the emperor, not elected by the people,
and the House of Peers went on to become a "rampartof the Imperial
House."88 Because court rank and office title denoted high government
status, they in effect continued to be prerequisitesfor conducting diplomacy on behalf of the Japanesestate. In 1711, Arai Hakusekihad to gain
JuniorFifth Rank in orderto meet publicly with Koreanenvoys; in 1870,
Mori Arinori had to recoverJuniorFifth Rank in orderto become Charge
d'Affairs in Japan'sWashingtonLegation.89
In the eighteenth century, would-be bakufu reformers such as Arai
Hakuseki, Ogyu Sorai, and Dazai Shundaihad arguedthat the Tokugawa
shogun should make himself "King of Japan"in name as well as fact. As
they presciently realized, the ritsuryo system of imperial court ranks and
86. Kodama, Daimyo, pp. 367-69.
87. Michio Umegaki, After the Restoration (New York: New York University Press,
1988), p. 133.
88. See Suzuki Masayuki, Kindai tenn6sei no shihai chitsujo (Tokyo: Azekura Shob6,
1986), pp. 12-50.
89. Nakai, ShogunalPolitics, p. 43; IvanParkerHall, MoriArinori(Cambridge,Mass.:
HarvardUniversityPress, 1973), p. 151. Mori had been strippedof his rankand office in 1869
as punishmentfor having petitionedfor legislation to take away the daimyo and samurairight
to bear two swords.
52
Journal of Japanese Studies
office titles, though purely nominal, implied that sovereigntyin Japanlay
with Kyoto, and so might someday inspire loyalist opposition to the Edo
regime. (But Arai Hakuseki himself had accepted these imperial honors.) As the TokugawaCollateral,Kii Yoshimichi(1689-1713), reportedly
declared:
All warriorsin the realmtodayhonorthe shogunalfamilyas theirsovereign [shukun],butin truththatis notright.Rankandofficetitlecomefrom
no Ason, MiddleCounsellor
the imperialcourt.To be called"Minamoto
withJuniorThirdRank,"meansthatone is a subject[shin]of the court.
That is why Mito Mitsukunisaid, "Theemperoris my sovereign;the
Shoulda war breakout-like the H6gen,
shogunis my commander."
Heiji, Jokyu,or Genko[pittingcourtagainstbakufu]-and shouldthe
courtcall for troops,we oughtto join.90
Later,in 1759, YamagataDaini would note: "Rankand stipendcome from
different sources. .. . [Kyoto] bestows honors but is poor, [Edo] dispenses
wealth but enjoys no prestige. And because people cannot gain both, authority is divided. Which side should we adhereto? One must be sovereign, and the other, subject."9'The early eighteenth century sentiments
voiced by TokugawaCollateralsMito MitsukuniandKii Yoshimichispread
to tozama daimyo such as MatsuuraSeizan (1760-1841) later in the century. By the Kansei era (1789-1800), Matsuuratoo assertedthat he was a
subject of the imperialcourt and would side with it, not the bakufu,if the
two should become enemies.92
This potentialfor divided loyalties and for oppositionto the bakufuincreased greatlywith the appearanceof scholarsof Native Learningsuch as
Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), HirataAtsutane(1776-1843), and their
followers in the late eighteenthand nineteenthcenturies.Of course, neither
thinkerarguedthat warriorrule should or could be overthrownin orderto
restoreimperialgovernment.To the contrary,both affirmedTokugawarule
as being in accord with the will of the gods. They, no less than Tokugawa
Confucianthinkers, assumedthat imperialcourt decline leading to bakufu
rule was historically irreversible.But their ideas increasedpopularreverence for the emperorand court in other ways.
90. Quoted in: Tsuji Zennosuke, Nihon bunkashi5: Edo jidai (j6) (Tokyo:Shunjusha,
1960), pp. 251-52; Miyazawa Seiichi, "Bakumatsuni okeru tenno o meguru shisoteki
doko," in Rekishigakukenkyu, November 1975 special issue, p. 141; and TaharaTsuguo,
"Kinsei chuki no seiji shiso to kokka ishiki," in Iwanami k6za Nihon rekishi 11: Kinsei 3
(Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1976), p. 318. But it should be noted thatthis is a second-handaccount written 52 years after Yoshimichi'sdeath.
91. Yamagata,Ryuishishinron, p. 21.
92. Fujita Satoru, "Kansei-ki no chotei to bakufu," in Rekishigakukenkyu, October
1989 special issue, p. 104.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
53
HirataAtsutane, for example, assertedthat "we are all the emperor's
children;but to have received an imperiallineage name such as Minamoto
or Taira means that you are a direct vassal."93Between such pedigreed
daimyo and theirhousemen, "lord-vassalrelationsmay also be createdprivately; but there is only one deity sovereignin our imperialland-the emperor."94Hirataemphasized the importanceof honoring his teachers, so
he called them by court title and ancient lineage name: Kada no Sukune
Azumamaro,Kamo no AgatanushiMabuchi, and Tairano Asomi Motoori
no Norinaga.95Both Norinagaand Atsutanesigned their worksusing these
titles. And Atsutanetook these honorificsfarther,by claiming thatall Japanese had imperial lineage names, though they might not know what
these were:
EveryJapanesehas a lineagenameoriginallybestowedby an emperorsuch as Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara,or Tachibana .... If you don't know
whatit is, youcanfindoutby lookingit upthroughyoursurname,suchas
"Hirata."Thisis a branchof learningknownas "genealogytracing."Its
needonly knowyoursurname;thentheycanjust aboutalpractitioners
waysidentifywhichgod or emperoryouaredescendedfrom.96
The Japanese governmentpropagated,and ruthlessly enforced belief
in, this kokutaimyth of Japanas an extended-familystate headed by a divine emperoruntil October 1945. Only then, two months after surrendering-and only after a change of cabinets ordered by MacArthur-did
Japan'sgovernmentsee fit to repeal the last of the Peace Preservationand
Police Laws.97Until then, all Japanesesubjects were enjoined to believe
that, if they went back far enough, they could trace their roots to some
noble house whose lineage name, such as Fujiwaraor Minamoto,had been
bestowed by an emperor as proof of direct vassalage. And each noble
house, of course, in turn stemmed from some divinity, such as Amenokoyane no mikoto in the case of the courtier Fujiwara, or some imperial
prince, such as RokusonTsunemotoin the case of the warriorMinamoto.
In any case, accordingto this kokutaimyth, all Japanesewere descended
from Amaterasuherself or from some deity who had loyally served her.
The pervasiveness and tenacity of such myths is attested to by a
well-knownpostwarCommunistPartyDietmember,TakakuraTeru(18911986), who suffered imprisonmentfour times before and during World
93. Taidowakumon,in HirataAtsutaneZenshuKank6kai,ed., ShinshuHirataAtsutane
zenshu (Tokyo:Meicho Shuppan, 1976), Vol. 8, p. 81.
94. Hirata, Taid6 wakumon,p. 92.
95. Kod6 taii, in Hirata Atsutane Zenshu Kank6kai, ed., Shinshu Hirata Atsutane
zenshu, Vol. 8, p. 21.
96. Hirata, Kodo taii, p. 55.
97. MatsuoHiroshi, Chianijih6to tokkokeisatsu(Tokyo:Kyoikusha,1979), pp. 214-17.
54
Journal of Japanese Studies
War II. In the August 1946 issue of Chuo koron, he publishedan article
entitled (in translation)"The Problemof the EmperorSystem and Imperial
House." In it, Takakurafelt compelled to disabuse fellow countrymenof
theirbelief in Japanas a family stateby exposingthe absurdityof thatmyth:
Thegenealogieswe haveathomeall showus to descendfromanEmperor
Tar6[Minamoto
noKamatari,
a Hachiman
noYoshiie],
Kammu,a Fujiwara
or some suchpersonagein antiquity.It is alwaysthe nameof someone
illustrious;no genealogytracesus to a lowly namelike "Rokubeiof soand-so."98
The mass acceptanceof these twentieth-centurykokutaimyths by prewar
Japanesecannot be attributedmainly to militarypolice torture,or even to
highly efficient propagationby governmentorgansand compulsoryeducation.99The emperorsystem andvalues supportingit did not arise out of thin
air after 1868; many of its fictions were widely believed in pre- and early
moderntimes.
Conclusion
In this article, I have arguedthat we Westernhistoriansof Japanhave
tendedto overlookone key reason-but it is not the only reason-why the
imperial institutionhas survived and prosperedinto modern times. That
reason lies in Japaneseperceptionsof honorand self-esteem as revealedin
their assumednames and titles. As can be seen in Britainand in Commonwealth nations such as Canada, monarchicor aristocraticsocieties have
historically placed great value in royal pedigrees or in noble ranks and
titles. But Japanperhapsstandsout (is "unique"?)for two reasons. First,
imperiallybestowed indicatorsof statushave remainedstrongfor longer in
Japan, while others, such as power or wealth, have counted for relatively
less in and of themselves. Second, modernJapanese, at least until 1945,
tended to emphasize their supposedracial purityand kinship with the imperial house. By contrast, the British royal family, for example, never
needed to hide its Germanancestry.As psychologistKishidaYuji statedin
the New YorkTimes in 1987, Japan'snational identity derives from "the
illusion that all Japaneseare connectedby blood," and from "the fact [sic]
that all Japanesebelieve they are relatedby blood to the emperor." 00
A name, when freely adopted,helps establisha person'sidentityin that
it shows how he or she wants to be addressedby others. As a rule, people
98. TakakuraTeru, "Tennoseinarabini koshitsuno mondai," reprintedin Chuo koron,
March 1989, p. 98.
99. Carol Gluck, Japan's ModernMyths (Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1985).
100. April 12, 1987. Quoted in Edward Behr, Hirohito: Behind the Myth (London:
Hamish Hamilton, 1989), p. 466.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
55
incorporatetitles in their names, or substitutetitles for their names, to bolster their prestige and commandrespectfrom society."( ForJapanesein the
early modern era, divine lineages and imperialranksand titles performed
this function of prestige enhancementmost effectively. In 1875, Fukuzawa
Yukichi arguedthat the Japanesepeople had never acquireda spirit of independence and self-worth based on individual achievement, apart from
the prestige that derived from noble credentials. Although the mightiest
warlordsin Japanesehistory-including the Tokugawashogun-achieved
power throughtheir own effort and ability, they could not justify their rule
on those grounds. Instead, as Fukuzawa observed, they remained convinced that "the best way to enhance the honor of their houses" was "to
receive rank and title from the imperial court" and "use these to control
people below them."
102
In contemporaryJapanthereare lingeringremnantsof this pre- or early
modern (Fukuzawatermed it "feudal") ethos of "names," whereby selfesteem and social prestigederive from the holding of government-or company-titlesthatconvey hierarchicdistinctionsof status. Then, too, the postwar emperor's non-sovereign status as "symbol" of the Japanese state
and people invites comparisonto the imperialinstitutionof early modern
times-as Hattori Shiso, Ishii Ryosuke, and others have argued. Court
ranks, imperialtitles, and the peerageare now gone; and very few Japanese
think of the emperoras a living god.'03But Article Seven of Japan'spostwar constitution empowers him to grant national honors that are still
greatly coveted.'04
For the most part, these honors take the form of decorationsof merit
(kunsho) that date from early Meiji times and which helped foster popular
supportfor the prewarimperialregime."'5I would suggest that two imperial functions-granting nationalhonors and performingcourt rituals such
as the daijosai-have formed the core of the emperorsystem throughout
Japan'shistory, and that we have tended to overlook the importanceof the
firstfunction in particular.One hypothesisas to why no one ever destroyed
101. That is why Western academics want undergraduatesto address them as "Professor" or "Doctor" Smith, not "Joe," and why Japaneseexecutives insist that subordinates
call them "buch6" or "shacho," not "Tanaka-san."
102. Bummeironno gairyaku, in FukuzawaYukichizenshti,Vol. 4, p. 164;Dilworthand
Hurst, tr., An Outline of a Theoryof Civilization, p. 154.
103. The composer, MayuzumiToshiro, is one who does. About the emperor'srenunciation of divinity in 1946, Mayuzumisays: "Nowherein His Majesty'sstatementdo we find the
expression 'I am a humanbeing.' Thatis somethinglistenershave arbitrarilyimputed.To me,
His Majesty . . . is a kami." See Bungei shunju, March 1989 special issue, p. 508.
104. See my "Eitenjuyo no d6tokutekiigi," in Shisd, No. 797, (November 1990).
105. Fukui Jun, "Nihon ni okerujokun seido no keisei ni tsuite," in Rekishi hyoron,
No. 466 (February1989), pp. 43-55.
56
Journal of Japanese Studies
the imperialinstitutionmight be that it has providedsomethinghighly desired in status-consciousJapanesesociety: prestige, and, in moderntimes,
money. Even ToyamaShigeki, a Marxisthistorianvehementlycritical of
the emperor system, has to admit that his prewareducational expenses
were paid in part from the governmentstipend that accompaniedhis father's Order of the Golden Kite.l06Today, imperial decorationscarry no
monetaryreward.But an audiencewith the emperorat the imperialpalace
is still cherished by many Japanese as one's "greatest honor" and "an
honor for my family."
07
Moreover, as Ishii notes, Article Six of the postwarconstitutionempowers the emperorto "appoint"prime ministersand supremecourt chief
justices. In November 1952, PrimeMinisterYoshidaShigeruavowedhimself a "subject" (shin) of Emperor Showa, who, by logical extension,
could only be sovereign(kimi). By this reasoning,which remindsus of Kii
Yoshimichiand Mito Mitsukuni,all cabinetministersare shin in that their
official title is daijin, and so they shouldconsiderthemselvesimperialsubjects. That may have simply been Yoshida'spersonal opinion. But this
statementfrom Japan'shead of state in 1952 contradictsthe postwarconstitution's most importantdemocratic stipulation:that sovereignty resides
with the people, not the emperor.
Wheneverpostwarprime ministersworshipedat YasukuniShrine before 1976, they held thattheiracts did not constitutegovernmentsupportof
State Shinto--and so did not violate the constitution-because their visits
were non-official and they signed the shrine ledger as privateindividuals.
But as of May 1979, DirectorGeneralSanadaHideo of the CabinetLegislation Bureaudroppedthis fine legal distinctionbetween official and nonofficial, public and private. Since then, worship at Yasukunihas been
legally interpretedas constitutionaleven when prime ministers sign as
"naikaku sori daijin, XX." According to Sanada, who echoes Muro
Kyuso, "the use of office titles [in names] is a general practiceof life in
Japanesesociety. Anyone who holds governmentoffice goes by his office
title, even when acting as a privateindividual."10
Given imperial Japan'soverwhelming defeat and unconditionalsurrenderin 1945, most of us now presumethatthe emperor'sfall from power
is "historicallyirreversible."The postwarimperialinstitutionseems impo106. Toyama, "Watakushino rekishi kenkyu to tennosei," in Gendai to shiso, No. 15
(March1974), p. 118.
107. Statementby Ito Midori, 20-year-old world figure-skatingchampionand national
idol, in The Globe and Mail (Toronto),March6, 1990.
108. Quotedin Miyaji, Tennoseino seijishitekikenkyu,p. 214. Miyajihimself falls into
this culturaltrapby citing Sanadaas "SanadaHoseikyokuchokan," not by his given name,
Hideo.
Wakabayashi:ImperialSovereignty
57
tent and "defunct" comparedwith the absolutepower it could claim under
the Meiji constitution.In these respects, too, parallelsmay be drawnto the
deplorableconditionlamentedby EmperorGo-Mizunooin the early seventeenth century. But can anyone categorically state that an imperial comeback-in some form or other-is totally impossible?May we assume that
"even myriad oxen could not returnthe imperial court to the power" it
once enjoyed? Perhapsit is still too early to tell just how purely symbolic,
formalistic, and nominal the postwaremperor'sauthorityreally is. He and
his family certainlyhave seen worse days.
YORK UNIVERSITY