Daimyō in the context of "Samurai"

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered to the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside 14,121 smaller islands. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions, and around 75% of its terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating its agriculture and highly urbanized population along its eastern coastal plains. With a population of over 123 million as of 2025, it is the world's 11th most populous country. Tokyo is the country's capital and largest city.

The first known habitation of the archipelago dates to the Upper Paleolithic, with the beginning of the Japanese Paleolithic dating to c. 36,000 BC. Between the 4th and 6th centuries, its kingdoms were united under an emperor in Nara and later Heian-kyō. From the 12th century, actual power was held by military aristocrats known as shōgun and feudal lords called daimyō, enforced by warrior nobility named samurai. After rule by the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates and a century of warring states, Japan was unified in 1600 by the Tokugawa shogunate, which implemented an isolationist foreign policy. In 1853, an American fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868.

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the Edo shogunate, was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.

The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars of the Sengoku period following the collapse of the Ashikaga shogunate. Ieyasu became the shōgun, and the Tokugawa clan governed Japan from Edo Castle in the eastern city of Edo (Tokyo) along with the daimyō lords of the samurai class.

The Fuhanken Sanchisei (府藩県三治制; "Fu, Han and Ken three-tiered Governance System") was the subnational government structure in early Meiji Japan. It lasted from the Boshin War, the start to the Meiji Restoration, in 1868 until the replacement of all remaining feudal domains (-han) with prefectures (-ken) in 1871. During this period, prefectures, urban prefectures (府, fu) and rural prefectures (県, ken), controlled by the new central government, and daimyō Domains (藩, han), still under their pre-restoration feudal rulers, formed the primary administrative subdivisions of the country. The exact numbers varied continually as adjustments to the feudal territorial divisions, mergers and splits started to take up pace, but very roughly there were about >250 -han and about <50 -fu/-ken in total during this time.

As the political borders changed all the time, ancient ritsuryō provinces, essentially static except for some modernizing adjustments in the North where the giant provinces of Mutsu and Dewa (both Tōsan Circuit) were split up and a new circuit (Hokkai Circuit) with 10 provinces was added on Ezo, remained the primary geographic frame of reference even in Meiji Japan until around the turn of the century – just as they had been throughout the late Middle Ages and early modern period.

Aizu Domain (会津藩, Aizu-han) was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1601 to 1871.

The Aizu Domain was based at Tsuruga Castle in Mutsu Province, the core of the modern city of Aizuwakamatsu, located in the Tōhoku region of the island of Honshu. The Aizu Domain was ruled for most of its existence by the shinpan daimyō of the Aizu-Matsudaira clan, a local cadet branch of the ruling Tokugawa clan, but was briefly ruled by the tozama daimyō of the Gamō and Katō clans. The Aizu Domain was assessed under the Kokudaka system with a peak value of 919,000 koku, but this was reduced to 230,000 koku. The Aizu Domain was dissolved in the abolition of the han system in 1871 by the Meiji government and its territory was absorbed into Fukushima Prefecture, covering much of the traditional region of Aizu.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣 秀吉; Japanese pronunciation: [to.jo.to.mʲi (|) çi.de(ꜜ).jo.ɕi], 27 March 1537 – 18 September 1598), otherwise known as Kinoshita Tōkichirō (木下 藤吉郎) and Hashiba Hideyoshi (羽柴 秀吉), was a Japanese samurai and daimyō (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan. Although he came from a peasant background, his immense power earned him the rank and title of Kampaku (関白, Imperial Regent) and Daijō-daijin (太政大臣, Chancellor of the Realm), the highest official position and title in the nobility class. He was the first person in history to become a Kampaku who was not born a noble. He then passed the position and title of Kampaku to his nephew, Toyotomi Hidetsugu. He remained in power as Taikō (太閤), the title of retired Kampaku, until his death. It is believed, but not certain, that the reason he refused or could not obtain the title of shogun (征夷大将軍), the leader of the warrior class, was because he was of peasant origin.

Hideyoshi rose from a peasant background as a retainer of the prominent lord Oda Nobunaga to become one of the most powerful men in Japanese history. He distinguished himself in many of Nobunaga's campaigns. After Nobunaga's death in the Honnō-ji Incident in 1582, Hideyoshi defeated his assassin Akechi Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki and became Nobunaga's successor. He then continued the campaign to unite Japan that led to the closing of the Sengoku period. Hideyoshi became the de facto leader of Japan and acquired the prestigious positions of daijō-daijin and kampaku by the mid-1580s. He conquered Shikoku in 1585 and Kyūshū in 1587, and completed the unification by winning the Siege of Odawara in 1590 and crushing the Kunohe rebellion in 1591. With the unification of Japan complete, Hideyoshi launched the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592 to initial success, but eventual military stalemate damaged his prestige before his death in 1598. Hideyoshi's young son and successor Toyotomi Hideyori was displaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 which would lead to the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

The Mōri clan (毛利氏, Mōri-shi; Japanese pronunciation: [moꜜː.ɾʲi, moː.ɾʲiꜜ.ɕi]) was a Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power in Aki Province. During the Edo period his descendants became daimyō of the Chōshū Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate. After the Meiji Restoration with the abolition of the han system and daimyō, the Mōri clan became part of the new nobility.

The Shimazu clan (島津氏, Shimazu-shi; Japanese pronunciation: [ɕiꜜ.ma.(d)zɯ, ɕi.ma.(d)zɯꜜ.ɕi]) were the daimyō of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan.

The Shimazu were identified as one of the tozama or outsider daimyō families in contrast with the fudai or insider clans which were hereditary vassals or allies of the Tokugawa clan.

The Ashikaga shogunate (足利幕府, Ashikaga bakufu), also known as the Muromachi shogunate (室町幕府, Muromachi bakufu), was the feudal military government of Japan during the Muromachi period from 1336 to 1573.

The Ashikaga shogunate was established when Ashikaga Takauji was appointed Shōgun after overthrowing the Kenmu Restoration shortly after it had overthrown the Kamakura shogunate in support of Emperor Go-Daigo. The Ashikaga clan governed Japan from the Imperial capital of Heian-kyō (Kyoto) as de facto military dictators along with the daimyō lords of the samurai class. The Ashikaga shogunate began the Nanboku-chō period between the Pro-Ashikaga Northern Court in Kyoto and the Pro-Go-Daigo Southern Court in Yoshino until the South conceded to the North in 1392. The Ashikaga shogunate collapsed upon outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, entering a state of constant civil war known as the Sengoku period, and was finally dissolved when Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiaki was overthrown by Oda Nobunaga in 1573.