Sesshō and Kampaku

In Japan, was a title given to a regent who was named to act on behalf of either a child Emperor before his coming of age, or an empress regnant. The was theoretically a sort of chief advisor for the Emperor, but was in practice the title of both first secretary and regent who assisted an adult Emperor. For much of the Heian period (794–1185), the and were the effective rulers of Japan, with little, if any, effective difference between the two titles, and several individuals merely changed titles as child Emperors grew to adulthood, or adult Emperors retired or died and were replaced by child Emperors. The two titles were collectively known as , and the families that exclusively held the titles were called ( family). After the Heian period, shogunates took over the power.

Both and were styled as (or in historical pronunciation; translated as "(Imperial) Highness"), as were Imperial princes and princesses.

A retired was called , which came to commonly refer to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

History

In earlier times, only members of the Imperial Family could be appointed . The reports that Emperor Ōjin was assisted by his mother, Empress Jingū, but it is doubtful if it is a historical fact. The first historical was Prince Shōtoku, who assisted Empress Suiko.

The Fujiwara clan was the primary holder of the and titles. More precisely, those titles were held by the Fujiwara Hokke (northern Fujiwara family) and its descendants, to which Fujiwara no Yoshifusa belonged.

In 858, Fujiwara no Yoshifusa became . He was the first not to be a member of the Imperial house. In 887, Fujiwara no Mototsune, the nephew and adopted son of Yoshifusa, was appointed to the newly created office of .

In the 12th century, there were five families among the descendants of Yorimichi called : the Konoe family, Kujō family, Ichijō family, Takatsukasa family and Nijō family. Both the Konoe and Kujō families were descendants of Fujiwara no Yorimichi, through Fujiwara no Tadamichi. The other three families were derived from either the Konoe or Kujō families. Until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, those five families held those title exclusively with the two exceptions of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his nephew Toyotomi Hidetsugu.

The offices and titles of and were abolished by the declaration of the Imperial Restoration in 1868 during the Meiji Restoration in order to reorganize the government structure. The office and title of was stipulated under the former Imperial Household Law in 1889 and also under the new Imperial Household Law in 1948. Under these laws, the officeholder of is restricted to a member of the Imperial family. Crown Prince Hirohito, before becoming Emperor Shōwa, was from 1921 to 1926 for the mentally disabled Emperor Taishō. He was called .

List

The following is a list of and in the order of succession. The list is not exhaustive:

See also

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* (written with the same characters as )

Citations

General references

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* .

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Government of feudal Japan
Japanese historical terms
Japanese monarchy
Japanese nobility
Imperial Advisers
Lists of office-holders
Titles of national or ethnic leadership