Kazoku

The Kazoku (華族, "Flowery lineage"; IPA: [ka̠zo̞kɯ̟]) was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. It was formed by merging the feudal lords (daimyō) and court nobles (kuge) into one system modelled after the British peerage. Distinguished military officers, politicians, and scholars were occasionally ennobled as shin kazoku (新華族, "the newly ennobled"), until the country's defeat in the Second World War in 1945. The system was abolished with the 1947 constitution, which prohibited any form of aristocracy under it, but kazoku descendants still form the core of the traditional upper class in the country's society, distinct from the nouveau riche. Kazoku (華族) should not be confused with kazoku (家族), which is pronounced the same in Japanese, but written with a different first character, meaning "immediate family" (as in the film Kazoku).