The Kazoku 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. 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.
The House of Peers in session with Emperor Meiji giving a speech. (Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Yōshū Chikanobu, 1890)
Prince Tokugawa Iesato was the first head of the Tokugawa clan after the overthrow of the shogunate, and was President of the House of Peers from 1903-1933. A number of former samurai families became part of the kazoku during the Meiji era.
Marquess Michitsune Koga (1842–1925), a member of the Imperial Family, descending from Emperor Murakami.
The interior of Peers' Club, Tokyo (1912). Unlike Western-style gentlemen's clubs, membership was also open to women.
Daimyo were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period 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 and the kuge. In the term, dai (大) means 'large', and myō stands for myōden (名田), meaning 'private land'.
Shiba Yoshimasa of Shiba clan, one of the shugo-daimyo
Oda Nobunaga, a powerful daimyō during the Sengoku period.
Date Tanemune, a daimyō during the Sengoku period.
Date Munenari, eighth head of the Uwajima Domain