A Comprehensive Guide to the Nobility
Chapter 37
The 'Villainess' trend is booming on the 'Shousetsuka ni Narou' (Let’s Become a Novelist) platform.
Many young ladies in these stories have titles. Do you know them?
- Baroness
- Viscountess
- Countess
- Marchioness
- Duchess
These titles—baron, viscount, count, marquess, and duke—represent the hierarchy of the nobility, and many villainesses leverage their high status as duchesses or marquesses to bully the protagonists of otome games.
Did you know that this noble hierarchy also existed in Japan?
After the Meiji Restoration, the Empire of Japan established a noble system known as the kazoku.
You may have heard of the social classes created during the Edo period, such as samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants, but did you know there was a class not included in this system?
The kuge (court nobles).
Historically occupying the core of the imperial court and being close to the emperor, who resided in Kyoto at the time, they successfully aligned with the victorious Meiji government by manipulating the imperial banner during the tumultuous Bakumatsu period.
In contrast, the daimyo (feudal lords) who fell out of favor with the centralized Meiji government were among the losers when the Edo shogunate collapsed.
[T/N - if you don't know what is Bakumatsu (around 1850-70 I think not sure), then short answer would be Centralization of POWER , with just little bloody path . I'm am lying it's pretty damn violent compared to modern era but at that time Islamic Rulers was at Full swing with their conversion idle, Garnier a lot of hatred from it's subjects , created a civil world like atmosphere in Asia & Africa , soon after golden age of British Empire followed, they were pretty damn good in using emotions to put one against each other, fanning the flames of different part of the world to concur, on that time NEW WORLD (AMERICA) too was going through tough time , Yeah world was pretty damn hardcore at that time ]
The kazoku were formed from the fusion of these winners and losers.
Despite advocating for the abolition of classes with the policy of equal status for all, the Meiji government retained the privileged class of the kazoku.
In a sense, this was inevitable.
During the Boshin War, just before and after the Meiji Restoration, the powerful northern domains did not comply with the Meiji government. There were also fears that daimyo might be involved in subsequent samurai rebellions (from the Saga Rebellion to the Satsuma Rebellion).
In addition to the kuge and daimyo, the kazoku included the following individuals. There are exceptions, but broadly speaking, it looked like this:
Baron (男爵, Danshaku): Families with achievements after the Meiji Restoration, or lower-ranked kuge (court nobles).
Viscount (子爵, Shishaku): Families with achievements around the Meiji Restoration, or those who were daimyō (feudal lords) during the Edo Shogunate.
Count (伯爵, Hakushaku): The key figures of the Meiji Restoration, higher-ranked kuge families, the Tokugawa gosankyō (three branches of the Tokugawa clan), and daimyō with domains of 100,000 koku* or more.
[T/N- The term "koku" (石, koku) is a traditional Japanese unit of volume, historically used to measure quantities of rice. One koku was defined as the amount of rice sufficient to feed one person for one year, which is approximately 180 liters (about 5 bushels). In the context of feudal Japan, the wealth and power of a daimyō (feudal lord) were often measured in terms of the koku of rice their domain could produce annually.
#CHAPTGPT my lord saviour]
Marquis (侯爵, Kōshaku): Particularly distinguished figures among the key figures of the Meiji Restoration such as the Kido family (Kido Takayoshi) and the Ōkubo family (Ōkubo Toshimichi), the seven top-ranking kuge families known as the seigake, the Tokugawa gosanke (three privileged branches of the Tokugawa clan), and daimyō with domains of 150,000 koku or more.
Duke (公爵, Kōshaku): The most distinguished figures among the key figures of the Meiji Restoration such as the Sanjō family (Sanjō Sanetomi) and the Iwakura family (Iwakura Tomomi), the leading Shimazu and Mōri families who led the Meiji Restoration, the top-ranked kuge families known as the sekke, and the main Tokugawa family.
This shows how the Meiji government struggled to dismantle and then reconstruct the social hierarchy following the Meiji Restoration.
Now, the protagonist of this story, Runa Keika-in, hails from the Keika-in household, which is a ducal family. What did Runa’s grandfather do to obtain such a title?
Answer:
He started as a cadet branch of a kuge ducal family and played a key role in ending World War II.