Saito Takauji
July 31, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have had Japanese titles and forms of address on the brain. I have always tried to find a way to make sure that I have a Japanese persona appropriate context for my SCA rank and title. For a long time, I referred to myself as the Junior Undersecretary for Shrine Maintenance, an appropriately bureaucratic title for a low-ranking bureaucrat; and when I received my GoA I decided that I had earned a promotion to Senior Undersecretary. When I was Gold Falcon Principal Herald I, with the help of Kameshima Zentarou Umakai, translated Calontir as the Kingdom of Chushinchi and the role of Principal Herald as Jibu-kyo\u2014the head of the Ministry of Civil Administration\/Ceremonies (the Jibu-sho).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wanted to make sure that I was giving the same attention and level of detail to my forthcoming investiture as Baron of Mag Mor, so that I could properly contextualize my position. But for anyone reading this just to know if the normal SCA styles are also fine\u2014they are! I\u2019m never going to be picky about what someone calls me, and I\u2019ll reiterate that in the last section. This document is solely so that I can share my thoughts, and for anyone curious about adapting a landed Baronage in the SCA for a Japanese persona. I will never insist on it from anyone, nor will I be mad with however someone is comfortable addressing me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I. Mag Mor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mag Mor is, to both a Japanese and European mind, a fiefdom. In both cultures it would be given by a sovereign (King or Tenno) to a sub-infeudated noble, where it would become hereditary. And in both systems the landed noble administering the fiefdom would have their title defined by the name of the fiefdom. So, the first step is to translate the name so we can then properly discuss the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mag is an Irish word meaning Plain, and Mor means \u2018big, large, or great\u2019 (https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/m%C3%B3r<\/a>). Thus, the Barony\u2019s name literally translates to \u2018Great Plain\u2019, a fitting name for the barony stretching out across the great plains of Nebraska. This naming pattern follows that of the Irish Mag Mell\u2014delightful plain\u2014which is one of the names for the Celtic Otherworld (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mag_Mell<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The closest Japanese word for plain, in my research, is \u7551 \u2014pronounced \u2018hata\u2019 (https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E7%95%91<\/a>). This plain is specifically a crop field, which is similarly appropriate as the \u2018plain\u2019 of Mag Mor are the vast agricultural bounty of the lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Japanese has a prefix specifically for indicating that something is big or great, which is \u5927 (https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E5%A4%A7<\/a>). This is pronounced like a long \u201cOh\u201d. Combining these we arrive at \u5927\u7551, or in English O-Hata or Ohata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n II. What is the Lord of O-Hata<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Domains ruled by a noble in the Sengoku Jidai and Edo periods of Japan were referred to as han<\/em>. They originated as personal estates of powerful warriors, and eventually became more legally important than the previous kuni<\/em> of the Imperial court (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Han_system<\/a>). But, seeing the previous, they were also less a strictly delineated county system than an abstract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, a han\u2019s<\/em> importance was measured not by its actual size or the number of knights that it could offer but by its agricultural production. This was measured in koku, a unit of accounting equivalent to the amount of rice necessary to feed one person for a year (https:\/\/www.sumitomo.gr.jp\/english\/history\/s_history\/rice\/<\/a>). This means that while to a period European eye Mag Mor would be of mixed importance\u2014incredibly large but with a small population and only (currently) a single knight\u2019s service\u2014to the Japanese eye it would be incredibly valuable. Assuming that we grant an equivalence of rice (the Japanese staple) to corn, soybeans, and wheat (American staples), Nebraska\u2019s 1.85 billion bushels of corn alone would qualify it as a \u201cmillion koku domain\u201d greater even than the Tokugawa Shogunate\u2019s Kaga Domain (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kaga_Domain<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The kuni<\/em> were originally overseen by the kokushi<\/em>, administrators appointed by the Emperor and the Imperial Court. With the rise of the military bakufu <\/em>(literally \u2018tent government\u2019), successive Shoguns began appointing competing shugo <\/em>(military governors)who assumed more and more importance (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shugo<\/a>). These shugo<\/em> of varying ranks gained power until the breakdown of the Ashikaga Shogunate in the 15th<\/sup> century led to the Sengoku Jidai<\/em>, the period of the Nation at War, when they all began to be referred to as Daimyo<\/em> (literally \u2018great name\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n For my period\u2014perpetually trapped in December of 1600, unless the SCA ever extends the end date\u2014the most appropriate position equivalent to a landed Baron would be a Daimyo. Of course, one of the issues with a Japanese persona in the SCA is that the most appropriate equivalent of a Count or Duke would also be a Daimyo, differentiated only by the size and importance of the han<\/em>. Japan would not have a five-step graduated aristocracy until 1869 (see below), but that is something many non-European personae have to deal with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n III. Addressing the Daimyo of the O-Hata Domain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Having settled on Daimyo as the appropriate leader of the O-Hata domain, what is the proper period title and form of address?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, the SCA approved alternate titles are not the most period example. Those titles, found at https:\/\/heraldry.sca.org\/titles.html#Japanese<\/a>, are based on the above-mentioned post-period aristocracy. After Japan was opened (violently) to trade with the West and the overthrow of the Shogunate in the Meiji Restoration, they began a program of modernization and westernization. While the army was reorganized and retrained by the Prussians (sorry, Tom Cruise), they reorganized their nobility based on the British. Thus, they instituted the Kazoku<\/em>\u2014a five step peerage consisting of the ranks of non-Imperial Prince (equivalent to a Duke), Marquess, Count, Viscount, and Baron (https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/kazoku<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SCA approved alternate titles are the form found in the Kazoku<\/em>, which was never reflected in SCA period. They fit very nicely into the SCA\u2019s mostly English system because they were explicitly modelled after them the better part of three hundred years after period ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be clear, I have no issue with anyone in the Society who uses the SCA approved titles, as they are the only ones which are actually approved. But it is important to me to at least have a more period authentic presentation for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n