Minister of the Left

Premodern Japan
Part of a series on the politics and government of Japan during the Nara and Heian periods
Daijō-kan (Council of State)
Chancellor / Chief Minister	Daijō-daijin
Minister of the Left	Sadaijin
Minister of the Right	Udaijin
Minister of the Center	Naidaijin
Major Counselor	Dainagon
Middle Counselor	Chūnagon
Minor Counselor	Shōnagon
Eight Ministries
Center	Nakatsukasa-shō
Ceremonial	Shikibu-shō
Civil Administration	Jibu-shō
Popular Affairs	Minbu-shō
War	Hyōbu-shō
Justice	Gyōbu-shō
Treasury	Ōkura-shō
Imperial Household	Kunai-shō

The Minister of the Left (左大臣さだいじん, Sadaijin) was a government position in Japan during the Asuka to Meiji era. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the initial appearance of the Sadaijin in the context of a central administrative body called the Daijō-kan (太政官だじょうかん, Council of State). This early Daijō-kan was composed of the three ministers—the Daijō-daijin (太政大臣だじょうだいじん, Chancellor of the Realm), the Sadaijin and the Udaijin (右大臣うだいじん, Minister of the Right). The position was consolidated in the Taihō Code of 702.

When the Emperor and the nobility held real power, the Sadaijin was the highest permanent position in the Daijō-kan, the central organ of the state. The higher-ranking 'Daijō-daijin was not a permanent position, but was only appointed when a suitable person was found. The Sadaijin was the Senior Minister of State, overseeing all functions of government with the Udaijin as his deputy.

During the Heian period (794-1185), from the middle of the 9th century, the Fujiwara clan began to marry off their daughters to the emperor and assume the positions of Sesshō (摂政せっしょう, Imperial Regent for Minor Emperors) and Kampaku (関白かんぱく, Imperial Regent fo Adult Emperors), thereby excluding other clans from the political centre and increasing their political power. From the 10th century, the Fujiwara clan monopolised the positions of Sesshō and Kampaku. However, at the end of the 10th century, Fujiwara no Michinaga, who established the heyday of the Fujiwara clan became Sadaijin, a position of real power, rather than Kampaku, the highest nominal position. The duties of the Sesshō and Kampaku were to convey to the emperor the policies formulated by the Sadaijin and other senior officials of the Daijō-kan, and to convey the emperor's decisions to them. As regents of the emperor, the Sesshō and Kampaku sometimes made decisions on behalf of the emperor, but their positions were not defined by law and they had no specific political authority. The Sadaijin, on the other hand, was the highest permanent position in the Daijō-kan, the country's highest authority for planning and deciding important political matters, which is why Michinaga chose the Sadaijin.

From the Kamakura period (1185-1333), when the warrior class came to power in Japan, this government position became an honorary position with no real authority. At the time of Oda Nobunaga's appointment as Udaijin during the Azuchi-Momoyama period, the only members of the warrior class who had previously been appointed to imperial court posts higher than Udaijin were Taira no Kiyomori and Ashikaga Yoshimitsu as Daijō-daijin and Ashikaga Yoshinori and Ashikaga Yoshimasa as Sadaijin.

See also

• Imperial Household Agency
• Kōkyū
• Kugyō
• List of Daijō-daijin
• Sesshō and Kampaku

Further reading

• (in Japanese) Asai, T. (1985). Nyokan Tūkai. Tokyo: Kōdansha.
• Dickenson, Walter G. (1869). Japan: Being a Sketch of the History, Government and Officers of the Empire. London: W. Blackwood and Sons. OCLC 10716445
• Hall, John Whitney, Delmer M. Brown and Kozo Yamamura. (1993). The Cambridge History of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22352-2
• Ozaki, Yukio. (2001). The Autobiography of Ozaki Yukio: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan. [Translated by Fujiko Hara]. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05095-3 (cloth)
• (in Japanese) Ozaki, Yukio. (1955). Ozak Gakudō Zenshū. Tokyo: Kōronsha.
• Sansom, George (1958). A History of Japan to 1334. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Screech, Timon. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-7007-1720-X
• (in French) Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652], Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.
• Varley, H. Paul, ed. (1980). [Kitabatake Chikafusa, 1359], Jinnō Shōtōki ("A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa" translated by H. Paul Varley). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-04940-4