were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

s who, from the 10th century to the early

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

and the '' kuge''. In the term, means 'large', and stands for , meaning 'private land'. From the ''

shugo , commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The pos ...

'' of the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

through the

Sengoku The was a period in Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the feudal system of Japan under the Ashikaga shogunate. Various ...

to the ''daimyo'' of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of ''daimyo'' also varied considerably; while some ''daimyo'' clans, notably the Mōri, Shimazu and Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the ''kuge'', other ''daimyo'' were promoted from the ranks of the

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

, notably during the Edo period. ''Daimyo'' often hired samurai to guard their land, and they paid the samurai in land or food as relatively few could afford to pay samurai in money. The ''daimyo'' era ended soon after the Meiji Restoration with the adoption of the Prefectures of Japan, prefecture system in 1871.

''Shugo-daimyo''

The were the first group of men to hold the title daimyo. They arose from among the ''

'' during the

(approximately 1336 – 1573). The ''shugo-daimyo'' held not only military and police powers, but also economic power within a Provinces of Japan, province. They accumulated these powers throughout the first decades of the Muromachi period. Major ''shugo-daimyo'' came from the Shiba clan, Shiba, Hatakeyama clan, Hatakeyama, and Hosokawa clans, as well as the tozama clans of Yamana clan, Yamana, Ōuchi family, Ōuchi, Takeda clan, Takeda and Akamatsu clan, Akamatsu. The greatest ruled multiple provinces. The Ashikaga shogunate required the ''shugo-daimyo'' to reside in Kyoto, so they appointed relatives or retainers, called ''shugodai'', to represent them in their home provinces. Eventually, some of these in turn came to reside in Kyoto, appointing deputies in the provinces. The Ōnin War was a major uprising in which ''shugo-daimyo'' fought each other. During this and other wars of the time, ''kuni Ikkō-ikki, ikki'', or provincial uprisings, took place as locally powerful warriors sought independence from the ''shugo-daimyo''. The deputies of the ''shugo-daimyo'', living in the provinces, seized the opportunity to strengthen their position. At the end of the fifteenth century, those ''shugo-daimyo'' who succeeded remained in power. Those who had failed to exert control over their deputies fell from power and were replaced by a new class, the ''sengoku-daimyo'', who arose from the ranks of the ''shugodai'' and ''jizamurai''.

''Sengoku-daimyo''

Among the were many who had been ''shugo-daimyo'', such as the Satake clan, Satake, Imagawa clan, Imagawa, Takeda clan, Takeda, Toki clan, Toki, Rokkaku clan, Rokkaku, Ōuchi clan, Ōuchi, and Shimazu. New to the ranks of the daimyo were the Asakura clan, Asakura, Amago clan, Amago, Nagao clan, Nagao, Miyoshi clan, Miyoshi, Chōsokabe clan, Chōsokabe, Hatano, and Oda clan, Oda. These came from the ranks of the ''shugodai'' and their deputies. Additional ''sengoku-daimyo'' such as the Mōri, Tamura clan, Tamura, and Ryūzōji clan, Ryūzōji arose from the ''jizamurai''. The lower officials of the shogunate and rōnin (Later Hōjō clan, Late Hōjō, Saitō clan, Saitō), Kokushi (official), provincial officials (Kitabatake), and '' kuge'' (Tosa Ichijō) also gave rise to ''sengoku-daimyo''.

Edo period

The Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 marked the beginning of the

. ''Shōgun'' Tokugawa Ieyasu reorganized roughly 200 daimyo and their territories into ''Han (Japan), han,'' which were assessed by rice production. Those heading ''han'' assessed at 10,000 ''koku'' (50,000 bushels) or more were considered daimyo. Ieyasu also categorized the daimyo according to their relation to the ruling Tokugawa family: the ''Shinpan (daimyo), shinpan'' were related to the Tokugawa; the ''fudai'' had been vassals of the Tokugawa or allies in battle; and the ''tozama'' had not allied with the Tokugawa before the battle (did not necessarily fight against the Tokugawa). The ''shinpan'' were collaterals of Ieyasu, such as the Matsudaira clan, Matsudaira, or descendants of Ieyasu other than in the main line of succession. Several ''shinpan'', including the Tokugawa of Owari Province, Owari (Nagoya), Kii Province, Kii (Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama), and Mito, Ibaraki, Mito, as well as the Matsudaira of Fukui Prefecture, Fukui and Aizu, held large ''han''. A few ''fudai daimyo'', such as the Ii clan, Ii of Hikone, Shiga, Hikone, held large ''han,'' but many were small. The shogunate placed many ''fudai'' at strategic locations to guard the trade routes and the approaches to Edo. Also, many ''fudai daimyo'' took positions in the Edo shogunate, some rising to the position of ''rōjū.'' The fact that ''fudai daimyo'' could hold government positions, while ''tozama'' in general could not, was a main difference between the two. ''Tozama daimyo'' held mostly large fiefs far away from the capital, with e.g. the Kaga Domain, Kaga ''han'' of Ishikawa Prefecture, headed by the Maeda clan, assessed at 1,000,000 ''koku''. Other famous ''tozama'' clans included the Mōri clan, Mori of Nagato Province, Chōshū, the Shimazu family, Shimazu of Satsuma Province, Satsuma, the Date clan, Date of Sendai, the Uesugi clan, Uesugi of Yonezawa, Yamagata, Yonezawa, and the Hachisuka clan, Hachisuka of Awa Province (Tokushima), Awa. Initially, the Tokugawa regarded them as potentially rebellious, but for most of the Edo period, marriages between the Tokugawa and the ''tozama'', as well as control policies such as ''sankin-kōtai'', resulted in peaceful relations. Daimyo were required to maintain residences in Edo as well as their fiefs, and to move periodically between Edo and their fiefs, typically spending alternate years in each place, in a practice called ''sankin-kōtai''.

After the Meiji Restoration

In 1869, the year after the Meiji Restoration, the daimyo, together with the ''kuge,'' formed a new aristocracy, the ''kazoku''. In 1871, the Abolition of the han system, han were abolished, and prefectures were established. In this year, around 200 daimyo returned their titles to the emperor, who consolidated their han into 75 prefectures. Their military forces were also demobilized, with the daimyo and their samurai followers pensioned into retirement. The move to abolish the feudal domains effectively ended the daimyo era in Japan. This was effectively carried out through the financial collapse of the feudal-domain governments, hampering their capability for resistance. In the wake of the changes, many daimyo remained in control of their lands, being appointed as prefectural Governor (Japan), governors; however, they were soon relieved of this duty and called en masse to Tokyo, thereby cutting off any independent base of power from which to potentially rebel. Despite this, members of former daimyo families remained prominent in government and society, and in some cases continue to remain prominent to the present day. For example, Morihiro Hosokawa, the former Prime Minister of Japan, is a descendant of the daimyo of Kumamoto.

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