The House of Peers in session with Emperor Meiji giving a speech. (Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Yōshū Chikanobu, 1890)
The Kazoku (華族, "Magnificent/Exalted lineage") was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. It was formed by merging the feudal lords (daimyō) and court nobles (kuge) into one system modelled after the British peerage. Distinguished military officers, politicians, and scholars were occasionally ennobled until the country's defeat in the Second World War in 1945 (新華族, shin kazoku, lit. "the newly ennobled").[1][2] The system was abolished with the 1947 constitution, which prohibited any form of aristocracy under it, but kazoku descendants still form the core of the traditional upper class in the country's society, distinct from the nouveau riche.[3]
Kazoku (華族) should not be confused with "kazoku (家族)", which is pronounced the same in Japanese, but with a different character reading that means "immediate family" (as in the film Kazoku above).
^"Kazoku - Japanese nobility". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Dec 21, 2016. Archived from the original on August 31, 2019.
^日本国語大辞典, デジタル大辞泉,精選版. "新華族(シンカゾク)とは？ 意味や使い方". コトバンク (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-04-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"THE LAST RETREAT OF JAPAN'S NOBILITY - The Washington Post". web.archive.org. 2019-05-09. Retrieved 2024-04-27.
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