Pseudonym
A pseudonym or alias is a name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which can differ from their first or true name. Pseudonyms include stage names and user names, ring names, pen names, aliases, superhero or villain identities and code names, gamer identifications, regnal names of emperors and other monarchs, they have taken the form of anagrams and Latinisations, although there are many other methods of choosing a pseudonym. Pseudonyms should not be confused with new names that replace old ones and become the individual's full-time name. Pseudonyms are "part-time" names, used only in certain contexts – to provide a more clear-cut separation between one's private and professional lives, to showcase or enhance a particular persona, or to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists' tags, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre, computer hackers' handles. Actors, voice-over artists and other performers sometimes use stage names, for example, to better channel a relevant energy, gain a greater sense of security and comfort via privacy, more avoid troublesome fans/"stalkers", or to mask their ethnic backgrounds.
In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because they are part of a cultural or organisational tradition: for example devotional names used by members of some religious institutes, "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Trotsky and Lenin. A pseudonym may be used for personal reasons: for example, an individual may prefer to be called or known by a name that differs from their given or legal name, but is not ready to take the numerous steps to get their name changed. A collective name or collective pseudonym is one shared by two or more persons, for example the co-authors of a work, such as Carolyn Keene, Ellery Queen, Nicolas Bourbaki. Or James S. A. Corey; the term is derived from the Greek ψευδώνυμον "false name", from ψεῦδος, "lie, falsehood" and ὄνομα, "name". A pseudonym is distinct from an allonym, the name of another person, assumed by the author of a work of art; this may occur when someone is ghostwriting a book or play, or in parody, or when using a "front" name, such as by screenwriters blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s.
See pseudepigraph, for falsely attributed authorship. Sometimes people change their name in such a manner that the new name becomes permanent and is used by all who know the person; this is not an alias or pseudonym, but in fact a new name. In many countries, including common law countries, a name change can be ratified by a court and become a person's new legal name. For example, in the 1960s, black civil rights campaigner Malcolm Little changed his surname to "X", to represent his unknown African ancestral name, lost when his ancestors were brought to North America as slaves, he changed his name again to Malik El-Shabazz when he converted to Islam. Some Jews adopted Hebrew family names upon immigrating to Israel, dropping surnames, in their families for generations; the politician David Ben-Gurion, for example, was born David Grün in Poland. He adopted his Hebrew name in 1910, when he published his first article in a Zionist journal in Jerusalem. Many transgender people choose to adopt a new name around the time of their social transitioning, to resemble their desired gender better than their birth name.
Businesspersons of ethnic minorities in some parts of the world are sometimes advised by an employer to use a pseudonym, common or acceptable in that area when conducting business, to overcome racial or religious bias. Criminals may use aliases, fictitious business names, dummy corporations to hide their identity, or to impersonate other persons or entities in order to commit fraud. Aliases and fictitious business names used for dummy corporations may become so complex that, in the words of the Washington Post, "getting to the truth requires a walk down a bizarre labyrinth" and multiple government agencies may become involved to uncover the truth. A pen name, or "nom de plume", is a pseudonym adopted by an author; some female authors used male pen names, in particular in the 19th century, when writing was a male-dominated profession. The Brontë family used pen names for their early work, so as not to reveal their gender and so that local residents would not know that the books related to people of the neighbourhood.
The Brontës used their neighbours as inspiration for characters in many of their books. Anne Brontë published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall under the name Acton Bell. Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre under the name Currer Bell. Emily Brontë published Wuthering Heights as Ellis Bell. A well-known example of the former is Mary Ann Evans. Another example is Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, a 19th-century French writer who used the pen name George Sand. In contrast, some twentieth and twenty first century male romance novelists have used female pen names. A few examples of male authors using female pseudonyms include Brindle Chase, Peter O'Donnell and Christopher Wood. A pen name may be used if a writer's real name is to be confused with the name of another writer or notable individual, or if their real name is deemed to be unsuitable. Authors who write both fiction and non-fiction, or in different genres, may use
Daimyō
The daimyō were powerful Japanese feudal lords who, until their decline in the early Meiji period, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. In the term, dai means "large", myō stands for myōden, meaning private land. Subordinate to the shōgun, nominally to the Emperor and the kuge, daimyō were powerful feudal rulers from the 10th century to the middle 19th century in Japan. From the Shugo of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku to the daimyō of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history; the backgrounds of daimyō varied considerably. The term daimyō sometimes refers to the leading figures of such clans called "Lord", it was though not from these warlords that a shōgun arose or a regent was chosen. Daimyō hired samurai to guard their land and they paid the samurai in land or food as few could afford to pay samurai in money; the daimyō era ended soon after the Meiji Restoration with the adoption of the prefecture system in 1871. The shugo daimyō were the first group of men to hold the title daimyō.
They arose from among the shugo during the Muromachi period. The shugo-daimyō held not only military and police powers, but economic power within a province, they accumulated these powers throughout the first decades of the Muromachi period. Major shugo-daimyō came from the Shiba and Hosokawa clans, as well as the tozama clans of Yamana, Ōuchi, Akamatsu; the greatest ruled multiple provinces. The Ashikaga shogunate required the shugo-daimyō to reside in Kyoto, so they appointed relatives or retainers, called shugodai, to represent them in their home provinces; some of these in turn came to reside in Kyoto, appointing deputies in the provinces. The Ōnin War was a major uprising. During this and other wars of the time, kuni ikki, or provincial uprisings, took place as locally powerful warriors sought independence from the shugo-daimyō; the deputies of the shugo-daimyō, living in the provinces, seized the opportunity to strengthen their position. At the end of the fifteenth century, those shugo-daimyō who succeeded remained in power.
Those who had failed to exert control over their deputies fell from power and were replaced by a new class, the sengoku-daimyō, who arose from the ranks of the shugodai and ji-samurai. Among the sengoku daimyō were many, shugo-daimyō, such as the Satake, Takeda, Rokkaku, Ōuchi, Shimazu. New to the ranks of the daimyō were the Asakura, Nagao, Miyoshi, Chōsokabe, Jimbō, Hatano and Matsunaga; these came from the ranks of their deputies. Additional sengoku-daimyō such as the Mōri, Ryūzōji arose from the ji-samurai; the lower officials of the shogunate and rōnin, provincial officials, kuge gave rise to sengoku-daimyō. The Battle of Sekigahara in the year 1600 marked the beginning of the Edo period. Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu reorganized 200 daimyō and their territories into han, which were assessed by rice production; those heading han assessed at 10,000 koku or more were considered daimyō. Ieyasu categorized the daimyō according to their relation to the ruling Tokugawa family: the shinpan were related to the Tokugawa.
The shinpan were collaterals of Ieyasu, such as the Matsudaira, or descendants of Ieyasu other than in the main line of succession. Several shinpan, including the Tokugawa of Owari and Mito, as well as the Matsudaira of Fukui and Aizu, held large han. A few fudai daimyō, such as the Ii of Hikone, held large han; the shogunate placed many fudai at strategic locations to guard the trade routes and the approaches to Edo. Many fudai daimyō took positions in the Edo shogunate, some rising to the position of rōjū; the fact that fudai daimyō could hold government positions while tozama in general, could not was a main difference between the two. Tozama daimyō held large fiefs far away from the capital, with e.g. the Kaga han of Ishikawa Prefecture, headed by the Maeda clan, assessed at 1,000,000 koku. Other famous tozama clans included the Mori of Chōshū, the Shimazu of Satsuma, the Date of Sendai, the Uesugi of Yonezawa, the Hachisuka of Awa; the Tokugawa regarded them as rebellious, but for most of the Edo period, marriages between the Tokugawa and the tozama, as well as control policies such as sankin-kōtai, resulted in peaceful relations.
Daimyō were required to maintain residences in Edo as well as their fiefs, to move periodically between Edo and their fiefs spending alternate years in each place, in a practice called sankin-kōtai. In 1869, the year after the Meiji Restoration, the daimyō, together with the kuge, formed a new aristocracy, the kazoku. In 1871, the han were abolished and prefectures were established, thus ending the daimyō era in Japan. In the wake of this change, many daimyō remained in control of their lands, being appointed as prefectural governors. Despite this, members of former daimyō families remained prominent in government and society, in some cases continue to re
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is the head of the Imperial Family and the head of state of Japan. Under the 1947 constitution, he is defined as "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people." He was the highest authority of the Shinto religion. In Japanese, the Emperor is called Tennō "heavenly sovereign". In English, the use of the term Mikado for the Emperor was once common, but is now considered obsolete; the Emperor of Japan is the only head of state in the world with the English title of "Emperor". The Imperial House of Japan is the oldest continuing monarchical house in the world; the historical origins of the Emperors lie in the late Kofun period of the 3rd–7th centuries AD, but according to the traditional account of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Japan was founded in 660 BC by Emperor Jimmu, said to be a direct descendant of the sun-goddess Amaterasu. The current Emperor is Akihito, he acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne upon the death of his father, Emperor Shōwa, in 1989. The Japanese government announced in December 2017 that Akihito will abdicate on 30 April 2019.
The role of the Emperor of Japan has alternated between a ceremonial symbolic role and that of an actual imperial ruler. Since the establishment of the first shogunate in 1199, the Emperors of Japan have taken on a role as supreme battlefield commander, unlike many Western monarchs. Japanese Emperors have nearly always been controlled by external political forces, to varying degrees. In fact, between 1192 and 1867, the shōguns, or their shikken regents in Kamakura, were the de facto rulers of Japan, although they were nominally appointed by the Emperor. After the Meiji Restoration in 1867, the Emperor was the embodiment of all sovereign power in the realm, as enshrined in the Meiji Constitution of 1889. Since the enactment of the 1947 Constitution, he has been a ceremonial head of state without nominal political powers. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Imperial Palace has been called Kyūjō Kōkyo, is on the former site of Edo Castle in the heart of Tokyo. Earlier, Emperors resided in Kyoto for nearly eleven centuries.
The Emperor's Birthday is a national holiday. Unlike most constitutional monarchs, the Emperor is not the nominal chief executive. Article 65 explicitly vests executive power in the Cabinet, of which the Prime Minister is the leader; the Emperor is not the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The Japan Self-Defense Forces Act of 1954 explicitly vests this role with the Prime Minister; the Emperor's powers are limited only to important ceremonial functions. Article 4 of the Constitution stipulates that the Emperor "shall perform only such acts in matters of state as are provided for in the Constitution and he shall not have powers related to government." It stipulates that "the advice and approval of the Cabinet shall be required for all acts of the Emperor in matters of state". Article 4 states that these duties can be delegated by the Emperor as provided for by law. While the Emperor formally appoints the Prime Minister to office, Article 6 of the Constitution requires him to appoint the candidate "as designated by the Diet", without giving the Emperor the right to decline appointment.
Article 6 of the Constitution delegates the Emperor the following ceremonial roles: Appointment of the Prime Minister as designated by the Diet. Appointment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as designated by the Cabinet; the Emperor's other duties are laid down in article 7 of the Constitution, where it is stated that "the Emperor, with the advice and approval of the Cabinet, shall perform the following acts in matters of state on behalf of the people." In practice, all of these duties are exercised only in accordance with the binding instructions of the Cabinet: Promulgation of amendments of the constitution, cabinet orders, treaties. Convocation of the Diet. Dissolution of the House of Representatives. Proclamation of general election of members of the Diet. Attestation of the appointment and dismissal of Ministers of State and other officials as provided for by law, of full powers and credentials of Ambassadors and Ministers. Attestation of general and special amnesty, commutation of punishment and restoration of rights.
Awarding of honors. Attestation of instruments of ratification and other diplomatic documents as provided for by law. Receiving foreign ambassadors and ministers. Performance of ceremonial functions. Regular ceremonies of the Emperor with a constitutional basis are the Imperial Investitures in the Tokyo Imperial Palace and the Speech from the Throne ceremony in the House of Councillors in the National Diet Building; the latter ceremony opens extra sessions of the Diet. Ordinary sessions are opened each January and after new elections to the House of Representatives. Extra sessions convene in the autumn and are opened then. Although the Emperor has been a symbol of continuity with the past, the degree of power exercised by the Emperor has varied throughout Japanese history. In the early 7th century, the Emperor had begun to be called the "Son of Heaven"; the title of Emperor was borrowed from China, being derived from Chinese characters and was retroactively applied to the legendary Japanese rulers who reigned before the 7th–8th centuries AD.
According to the traditional account of the Nihon Shoki, Japan was founded by Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC. Modern historians agree that the Emperors before the possible late 3rd century AD ruler known traditionally as Emperor Ōjin are legendary. Emperor Ank
Jōzai-ji (Gifu)
Jōzai-ji is a Buddhist temple of the Nichiren sect in Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Its formal name is Shūrinzan Jōzai-ji. Starting with Saitō Dōsan, Jōzai-ji served as the family temple for the Saitō family for three generations, which included his son, Saitō Yoshitatsu, his grandson, Saitō Tokugen, it has been designated as a nationally Important Cultural Property, as it contains pictures of both Dōsan and Yoshitatsu. In 1450, Saitō Myōchin served as the guardian of upper Mino Province on behalf of the Toki clan. Using his power in the area, he built this temple. Afterwards, as Japan entered the Sengoku period, Nagai Shinzaemon used the area around his temple as his base for uniting the region. Dōsan, his son, continued his father's base of operations for a second generation, designating Jōzai-ji the family temple. For an explanation of terms concerning Japanese Buddhism, Japanese Buddhist art, Japanese Buddhist temple architecture, see the Glossary of Japanese Buddhism. 35°25′56″N 136°46′15″E
Nōhime
Lady Nō known as Kichō, was the legal wife of Oda Nobunaga, a major daimyō during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. Her proper name was Kichō, but since she came from Mino Province, she is most referred to as Nōhime, she was renowned for her beauty and cleverness. Nōhime's father was the daimyo her mother was known as Omi no Kata. Nō herself appears little in any historical record, there is not a lot of information on the dates of her birth or death. According to one historical record, Lady Nō was infertile, when Nobunaga's concubine Lady Kitsuno gave birth to Oda Nobutada, the child was given to Lady Nō, Nobunaga's legal wife, to be raised as Nobunaga's heir. Nō was said to be intelligent and stunningly beautiful. At their wedding, Nobunaga described her as having "the mind of a genius and the appearance of a goddess." She was married to him in 1549, during a truce between his father and hers. The marriage is believed to have been a political gesture, with little actual love between Nō and Nobunaga.
Though she was his official wife, it is believed that he focused his love on his concubine, who bore him his first son, Nobutada. Nō was never able to conceive a child with Nobunaga, it was believed that she was infertile. Through lack of historical record there is not much information of what became of Nō or the date of her death. Overall, it can be said that Nō's life as it is known now is more of a mixture of legends and tentative half-truths. Nō's official grave is at a subtemple of Daitoku-ji in Kyoto. One theory posits that Nō was acting as a spy, or assassin, for her father. Given Nobunaga's reputation at the time as the unruly "Fool of Owari", it was not impossible for Dōsan to want Nō to assassinate him, as she was skilled in both the sword and a selection of martial arts; as for her alleged role as a spy, there is a popular story where Nobunaga purposely gave Nō false information regarding a conspiracy between two of her father's head servants and their plans to betray him. Her father had both men executed, thus weakened himself by eliminating those loyal to him.
In 1556, Nō's father, was killed in a coup done by Yoshitatsu, in Mino Province. This detracted much from Nō's worth as a wife, her inability to conceive and her supposed spying were held against her. After the Incident at Honnō-ji which claimed the lives of Nobunaga and his son Nobutada, it was uncertain where Nō went; some speculate that she died at Honnō-ji, but the woman alleged to be Nō was more believed to be a dormant prostitute who Oda Nobunaga had taken a liking to. After the incident, Nobunaga's wives and female servants were all sent to Azuchi Castle, Nobunaga's castle of residence. Among the women was a Lady Azuchi, taken in by Nobunaga's second son, Nobukatsu; this Lady Azuchi is believed to have been Nō in disguise as she soon after disappeared from Azuchi Castle in the night. Afterwards, it was rumoured that she had attempted to raise her father's clan in Mino under her name, but this rumour says that Nō had been killed by an assassin sent by the Akechi, tracking her down since her escape from Honnō-ji.
The most accepted form of Nō’s life after the death of Nobunaga is that she was under the care of her adopted son Nobukatsu until he was defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi was under the care of the Toyotomi until her death in 1612. See People of the Sengoku period in popular culture. In Sengoku Basara game and anime series, she is depicted as a beautiful and elegant woman, loyal to her husband, with matchlock pistols and guns as weapons
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shōgun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but remained in power until his death in 1616, his given name is sometimes spelled Iyeyasu, according to the historical pronunciation of the kana character he. Ieyasu was posthumously enshrined at Nikkō Tōshō-gū with the name Tōshō Daigongen, he was one of the three unifiers of Japan, along with his former lord Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. During the Muromachi period, the Matsudaira clan controlled a portion of Mikawa Province. Ieyasu's father, Matsudaira Hirotada, was a minor local warlord based at Okazaki Castle who controlled a portion of the Tōkaidō highway linking Kyoto with the eastern provinces, his territory was sandwiched between stronger and predatory neighbors, including the Imagawa clan based in Suruga Province to the east and the Oda clan to the west.
Hirotada's main enemy was the father of Oda Nobunaga. Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in Okazaki Castle on the 26th day of the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Tenbun, according to the Japanese calendar. Named Matsudaira Takechiyo, he was the son of Matsudaira Hirotada, the daimyō of Mikawa of the Matsudaira clan, Odai-no-kata, the daughter of a neighbouring samurai lord, Mizuno Tadamasa, his mother and father were step-siblings. They were just 17 and 15 years old when Ieyasu was born. In the year of Ieyasu's birth, the Matsudaira clan was split. In 1543, Hirotada's uncle, Matsudaira Nobutaka defected to the Oda clan; this gave Oda Nobuhide the confidence to attack Okazaki. Soon afterwards, Hirotada's father-in-law died, his son Mizuno Nobumoto revived the clan's traditional enmity against the Matsudaira and declared for Oda Nobuhide as well; as a result, Hirotada sent her back to her family. As both husband and wife remarried and both went on to have further children, Ieyasu had 11 half-brothers and sisters.
As Oda Nobuhide continued to attack Okazaki, in 1548 Hirotada turned to his powerful eastern neighbor, Imagawa Yoshimoto for assistance. Yoshimoto agreed to an alliance under the condition that Hirotada send his young heir to Sunpu Domain as a hostage. Oda Nobuhide, learned of this arrangement and had Ieyasu abducted from his entourage en route to Sunpu. Ieyasu was just five years old at the time. Nobuhide threatened to execute Ieyasu. Despite this refusal, Nobuhide chose not to kill Ieyasu, but instead held him as a hostage for the next three years at the Mansho-ji Temple in Nagoya. In 1549, when Ieyasu was 6, his father Hirotada was murdered by his own vassals, bribed by the Oda clan. At about the same time, Oda Nobuhide died during an epidemic. Nobuhide's death dealt a heavy blow to the Oda clan. An army under the command of Imagawa Sessai laid siege to the castle where Oda Nobuhiro, Nobuhide's eldest son and the new head of the Oda, was living. With the castle about to fall, Sessai offered a deal to Nobuhide's second son.
Sessai offered to give up the siege. Nobunaga agreed, so Ieyasu was taken as a hostage to Sumpu. At Sumpu, he remained a hostage, but was treated well as a useful future ally of the Imagawa clan until 1556 when he was 15 years old. In 1556 Ieyasu came of age, with Imagawa Yoshimoto presiding over his genpuku ceremony. Following tradition, he changed his name from Matsudaira Takechiyo to Matsudaira Jirōsaburō Motonobu, he was briefly allowed to visit Okazaki to pay his respects to the tomb of his father, receive the homage of his nominal retainers, led by the karō Torii Tadayoshi. One year at the age of 13, he married his first wife, Lady Tsukiyama, a relative of Imagawa Yoshitmoto, changed his name again to Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu. Allowed to return to his native Mikawa, the Imagawa ordered him to fight the Oda clan in a series of battles. Motoyasu fought his first battle in 1558 at the Siege of Terabe; the castellan of Terabe in western Mikawa, Suzuki Shigeteru, betrayed the Imagawa by defecting to Oda Nobunaga.
This was nominally within Matsudaira territory, so Imagawa Yoshimoto entrusted the campaign to Ieyasu and his retainers from Okazaki. Ieyasu led the attack in person, but after taking the outer defences, grew fearful of a counterattack to the rear, so he burned the main castle and withdrew; as anticipated, the Oda forces attacked his rear lines, but Motoyasu was prepared and drove off the Oda army. He succeeded in delivering supplies in the 1559 Siege of Odaka. Odaka was the only one of five disputed frontier forts under attack by the Oda which remained in Imagawa hands. Motoyasu launched diversionary attacks against the two neighboring forts, when the garrisons of the other forts went to their assistance, Ieyasu's supply column was able to reach Odaka. By 1560 the leadership of the Oda clan had passed to the brilliant leader Oda Nobunaga. Imagawa Yoshimoto, leading a large army invaded Oda clan territory. Motoyasu was assigned a separate mission to capture the stronghold of Marune; as a result, he and his men were not present at the Battle of Okehazama where Yoshimoto was killed in Nobunaga's surprise assault.
With Yoshimoto dead, the Imagawa clan in a state of confus
Saitō clan
