, in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, refers to powerful regional families. In historical context, it can refer to powerful non-royal families regardless of their area of influence, in contrast to the

Imperial Family A royal family is the immediate family of King, kings/Queen regnant, queens, Emir, emirs/emiras, Sultan, sultans/Sultana (title), sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the ...

. The most powerful ''gōzoku'' families of the

Yamato period The is the period of Japanese history when the Imperial court ruled from modern-day Nara Prefecture, then known as Yamato Province. While conventionally assigned to the period 250–710, including both the Kofun period (–538) and the Asuka ...

included the

Soga clan The was one of the most powerful aristocratic kin groups (''uji'') of the Asuka period of the early Japanese state—the Yamato polity—and played a major role in the spread of Buddhism. Through the 5th and 7th centuries, the Soga monopolized ...

, Mononobe clan and Katsuragi clan.

History

In the

prior to the ''ritsuryō'' system, the powerful clans based in

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...

and Kawachi Province were referred to as the ''chūō gōzoku'' (central ''gōzoku''), while the term ''chihō'' ''gōzoku'' (regional ''gōzoku'') referred to powerful clans outside the immediate vicinity of the capital who served as ''

kuni no miyatsuko , also read as "kokuzō" or "kunitsuko", were officials in ancient Japan at the time of the Yamato court. Yamato period Kuni no miyatsuko governed small territories (), although the location, names, and borders of the provinces remain unclear. K ...

'' and ''

agatanushi was the name of an ancient title of nobility in the ''kabane'' system of Yamato period Japan from the 4th through 6th century AD, before the introduction of the ''Ritsuryō'' system. The word is a combination of the ''kanji'' for with , a politi ...

''. The central ''gōzoku'' held ''

kabane were Japanese hereditary noble titles. Their use traces back to ancient times when they began to be used as titles signifying a family's political and social status. History As the national unification by the Yamato imperial court progressed ...

'' titles such as '' omi'' and ''

muraji (from Old Japanese: ''muraⁿzi'' < *''mura-nusi'' "village master") was an ancient Japanese hereditary title denoting rank and political standing (a ''

'', while the regional ''gōzoku'' held titles such as ''atai'' and '' kimi''. The most powerful ''daigōzoku'' ("great ''gōzoku''") included the Katsuragi clan,

Ōtomo clan was a Japanese samurai family whose power stretched from the Kamakura period through the Sengoku period, spanning over 400 years. The clan's hereditary lands lay in Kyūshū. Origins The first family head, Ōtomo Yoshinao (1172–1223), took ...

, Mononobe clan, and

. After the implementation of the ''ritsuryō'' system, the central ''gōzoku'' became ''kizoku'', the aristocracy, and took part in central politics. The regional ''gōzoku'' remained practically unchanged and took part in regional politics. Under the ''ritsuryō'' system, ''gōzoku'' referred to powerful regional families holding a court rank of Sixth Rank or below or who were unranked, in contrast to the royals and the aristocracy, who held a court rank of Fifth Rank or above. Under this system, the ''gōzoku'' typically served as district governors or as junior officials in provincial governments, and thus took on the duties of local administration. In the Middle Ages, ''gōzoku'' referred to a class of regional officials such as ''

jitō were medieval territory stewards in Japan, especially in the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates. Appointed by the ''shōgun'', ''jitō'' managed manors including national holdings governed by the provincial governor ( kokushi). There were also ...

'' (territory governor), ''shōkan'' (manor administrator) and ''geshi'' (junior official at a manor). However, after

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 ...

, the term ''gōzoku'' fell out of use and was replaced by the term ''dogō'', which referred to ''

jizamurai The were lords of smaller rural domains in feudal Japan.Harold Britho, 'The Han', in John Whitney Hall, ed., ''The Cambridge History of Japan, volume 4: Early Modern Period'' (Cambridge UP, 1988), 183–234, They often used their relatively sma ...

'' (provincial

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 ...

lord of a small rural domain), ''kumon'' (official at a manor in charge of official documents) and ''satanin'' (official at a manor in charge of executing orders and judgements on behalf of the lord). During and after 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 ...

, neither the terms ''gōzoku'' nor ''dogō'' were used. The terms ''

gōnō ''Gōnō'' (豪農) were the upper-class peasantry in the late Edo period and early Meiji era Japan. They held considerable wealth and power in local communities, and aside from being major landowners, some owned small rural industries or served a ...

'' and ''gōshō'' replaced the previous class distinction following the rise of wealthy farmers and wealthy merchants during the Edo period.

References

Japanese historical terms Kofun period Asuka period Japanese nobility Ancient Japan {{japan-history-stub

History

See also

References