Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/48



HE Shōgun's Cabinet consisted of a Premier, called the "Great Senior" (Tairō); of five ministers, called "Seniors" (Rōjū) who formed a senior council, and of six "Sub-elders" (Waka-doshi-yori), who formed a junior council. It will be convenient to speak of these as the "Premier," the "Senior Councillors," and the "Junior Councillors."

Just as in the Kyōtō Court it had been necessary that the Regent and the Chancellor should be appointed from among the representatives of certain families, so the Premier of the Tokugawa administration must be a member of one of four houses,—Ii, Honda, Sakai, and Sakakibara; the Senior Councillors, who, among other duties, supervised the affairs of the Imperial Court in Kyōtō and those of the feudal nobility, and who served in turn for one month at a time, must be at least "castled barons," but the Junior Councillors, who, as a body, corresponded to the Hyōjō-shiu of the Kamakura epoch and had the special duty of superintending the bannerets,