Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 500, the 500th episode.

Well, here we are at long last.

I started this podcast, if memory serves, in the spring of 2013, so I've been doing this now for a little over 10 years at this point.

And it's been incredible.

I've had a chance to do things I never would have dreamed of.

I had a student stopped me in the hallway during the start of school this week

and asked me about the Netflix show I was on.

You know, it's just wild, honestly.

I think the big thing I want to say before we get in anything else is just thank you. I

really enjoy doing this. I really enjoy hearing from all of you. Even when I don't respond to messages,

just because I do get a lot of them. It really means a lot every single one I get. Thank you for

listening. Thank you especially to those of you who are or have donated over the course of

the years. It's just incredible, and it's really cool that I've had a chance to do this. So again,

thank you all, and without further ado, let's get into it. First, from listener and patron Sam,

how were the English translations of Kazoku titles established?

Like, for example, we call him Prince Konoe Fumimaro, but who decided that Koshaku meant

Prince and not Duke or Count or something else?

So as I understand it, it was primarily Ito Hirobumi who was behind this whole system. Specifically, he is usually

credited as the primary drafter of the 1884 law, which laid out the basic rules behind

Japan's peerage system, which would continue to exist all the way to 1947 when the U.S. imposed

constitution scrapped that whole system.

And really, it kind of had to be Eto, because by 1884, work is already underway, as we know,

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