Naidaijin

This article is about the Imperial Household of Japan before the 1880s. For other uses, see Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan.

Pre-modern Japan

This article is part of the series: Daijō-kan Council of State Chancellor or Chief Minister (Daijō-daijin) Minister of the Left (Sadaijin) Minister of the Right (Udaijin) Minister of the Center (Naidaijin) Major Counselor (Dainagon) Middle Counselor (Chūnagon) Minor Counselor (Shōnagon) Eight Ministries Ministry of the Center (Nakatsukasa-shō) Ministry of Civil Services (Shikibu-shō) Ministry of Ceremonies (Jibu-shō) Ministry of Taxation (Minbu-shō) Ministry of the Military (Hyōbu-shō) Ministry of Justice (Gyōbu-shō) Ministry of the Treasury (Ōkura-shō) Ministry of the Imperial Household (Kunai-shō) _____________________ Meiji government Chancellor (Daijō daijin) Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan (Naidaijin) _____________________ Postwar Shōwa period Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō)

The Naidaijin (内大臣^?), usually translated as Inner Minister—also known as the Minister of the Center (内大臣, uchi no otodo^?) -- was a significant post in the Imperial court as re-organized under the Taihō Code.^[1]

Pre-Meiji period official

The role, rank and authority of the naidaijin varied, however, throughout pre-Meiji history.

In the ritsuryō system, the Minister of the Center was inferior only to the Minister of the Left and the Minister of the Right.

Meiji period official

The office developed a different character in the Meiji period. In 1885, the title was reconfigured to mean the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan in the Imperial Court.^[2] In that year, the office of prime minister or chief minister of the initial restoration government was the Daijō-daijin, Sanjō Sanetomi. In December, Sanjō petitioned the emperor to be relieved of his office; and he was then immediately appointed Naidaijin, or Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal.^[3]

The office of the Privy Seal was identical with the old Naidaijin only in the sense of the Japanese title—not in terms of function or powers.^[4]

Post-Meiji period official

The nature of the office evolved in the Taishō and Shōwa periods. The title was abolished on November 24, 1945.^[5]

See also

• Daijō-kan
• Kugyō
• Sessho and Kampaku
• List of Daijō Daijin
• Kōkyū
• Kuge
• Imperial Household Agency

Notes

1. ^ Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, p. 425.
2. ^ Dus, Peter. (1988). The Cambridge History of Japan: The Twentieth Century, pp. 59, 81.
3. ^ Ozaki, p. 86.
4. ^ Unterstein (in German): Ranks in Ancient and Meiji Japan (in English and French), pp. 6, 27.
5. ^ Glossary | Birth of the Constitution of Japan

References

• (Japanese) Asai, T. (1985). Nyokan Tūkai. Tokyo: Kōdansha.
• Dickenson, Walter G. (1869). Japan: Being a Sketch of the History, Government and Officers of the Empire. London: W. Blackwood and Sons. OCLC 10716445
• Ozaki, Yukio. (2001). The Autobiography of Ozaki Yukio: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan. [Translated by Fujiko Hara]. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 10-ISBN 0-691-05095-3 (cloth)
• (Japanese) Ozaki, Yukio. (1955). Ozak Gakudō Zenshū. Tokyo: Kōronsha.
• Sansom, George (1958). A History of Japan to 1334. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-804-70523-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-804-70523-3
• Dus, Peter. (1988). The Cambridge History of Japan: the Twentieth Century, Vol. 6. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22357-1
• Ozaki, Yukio. (2001). The Autobiography of Ozaki Yukio: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan. [Translated by Fujiko Hara]. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 10-ISBN 0-691-05095-3 (cloth)
• Screech, Timon. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822. London: Routledge Curzon. ISBN 0-700-71720-X
• (French) Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652], Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.
• Varley, H. Paul , ed. (1980). [ Kitabatake Chikafusa, 1359], Jinnō Shōtōki ("A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa" translated by H. Paul Varley). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-04940-4