No "no"

[Guido]

The most commonly encountered (honorary) titles of sword smiths are no kami 守, no suke 介, and daijō 大掾. Daijō is often transcribed as no daijō – even in Japanese publications – which is patently wrong. This will become clear when we look at the actual gubernatorial titles they are based on.

 

Japan was divided into 54 kuni 国, or provinces, at the time of the Taika reform. Some of those kuni were divided later, and some were added, so that in 823 AD the number was 68, which didn’t change until the Meiji 明治 restoration in 1868. The kuni were ranked, according to their size, as taikoku 大国, jōkoku 上国, chūkoku 中国 and gekoku 下国.

 

Originally governed by officials with the kabane 姓 (heriditary court title) kuni no miyatsuko 国造 (territorial lords) and inagi  稲置 (squires overseeing lesser estates of the emperor), of which emperor Jimmu 神武天皇 had appointed 144, they were replaced during the reign of emperor Kōtoku 孝徳天皇 in the early Nara period 奈良時代 by the kokushi 国司. The kokushi, gubernatorial officials, were headed by a kokushu 国守, governor, and the titles they held are called zuryō 受領.

 

The zuryō were (in descending order):

no kami 守 (governor, title of the kokushu)

no suke 介 (vice governor)

no jō 掾

no sakan 目

no shijō 史生

The possessive predicate “no” の is not written, but always pronounced.

 

Depending on the size of the province, the titles below “no kami” were further differentiated, using either the prefixes dai 大 or shō 小 - in these cases “no” isn’t used/pronounced:

daisuke 大介

shōsuke 小介

daijō 大掾

shōjō 小掾

daisakan 大目

shōsakan 小目

daishijō 大史生

shōshijō 小史生

 

Sorry for the unsolicited history and language lesson, but this “no daijō” mistake irks me without end …  

 

[Brian]

Thanks for the clarification Guido, will try to remember that.

Any particular reason why, out of

daisuke, shōsuke, daijō, shōjō, daisakan, shōsakan, daishijō and shōshijō we only ever seem to encounter daijo in swordsmith titles?

[Guido]

Any particular reason why, out of daisuke, shōsuke, daijō, shōjō, daisakan, shōsakan, daishijō and shōshijō we only ever seem to encounter daijo in swordsmith titles?

 

I have no reliable information about that, but since the titles daisuke and shōsuke were seldomly given during and after the Ashikaga 足利 rule, the three highest titles were no kami, no suke, and daijō.

 

After the Ōnin war 応仁乱, the zuryō became in most cases merely honorific, awarded for merits in battle etc., and the holders had no jurisdiction over the respective provinces. There were, for instance, several Bizen no kami 備前守 and Shinano no kami 信濃守 at the same time. (Some exceptions applied, like the Shimazu 島津, daimyō of Kagoshima 鹿児島, who bore the hereditary title of Satsuma no kami 薩摩守.)

[Baka Gaijin]

Good morning Gentlemen.,

 

What other areas of pre modern Japanese society used these honorifics? or was it only for swordsmiths?

[Guido]

What other areas of pre modern Japanese society used these honorifics? or was it only for swordsmiths?

I thought I made it clear that those were official titles used from the early Nara period on, sorry for the confusion. Awarding gubernatorial titles as purely honorary titles started in the Muromachi period, and became common in the Edo period; mostly given to daimyō and other high ranking samurai, but it also includes sword smiths. They had to be confirmed by the imperial court, but that was more or less only a formality (and paying a sufficient fee).

[BIG]

The titles became more common in edo times...

 

many good smiths did not work for the common ..., they hired by ( daimyo ) clans, and the titles were a kind of fixed wages?!

 

Best Regards

[Guido]

Daimyō could appoint zuryō themselves, but as I mentioned before, the title had to be approved by the imperial court – which it usually did, for a fee. The higher the title, the higher the fee. Not only samurai, but also sword smiths became eligible to apply for and receive such a honorary title.

 

Kinmichi (Kanemichi) 金道, who founded the Mishina 三品 school, received the title Iga no kami on the 19'th day of the 2'nd month Bunroku 3 (1594), and worked also for the court from that time onwards. Shortly before the battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered 1,000 tachi from him, and due to the skillful management of all the workers, he was granted with the honorary title nihon kaji sōshō 日本鍛冶惣匠, lit. “master swordsmith of Japan”. With that title, he had a certain influence at court on the granting of honorary titles for other swordsmiths. The title and the advisory function at the imperial court were hereditary, and held by successive Kinmichi generations until the bakumatsu era. It is said that they earned more money by acting as intermediaries for titles, than by selling swords.

[Jacques]

Interesting even if it is written in french (thanks Jean for a better translation than mine).

 

 

[Darcy]

A+ content. Makes reading the board a pleasure.