the.com/daimyo
Japan's feudal lords, who owned the land and everyone unlucky enough to farm it.
means A daimyo was a powerful territorial lord in pre-modern Japan who ruled a domain under (and sometimes against) the shogun's authority, commanding samurai and controlling vast farmland.
from From Japanese daimyō (大名), combining dai 'great, large' and myō (from myōden, 'name-land' — fields registered under a landholder's name for tax purposes). So the word literally traces back to 'great name,' rooted in the old land-registry system where a lord's name on the ledger meant the land, and everyone on it, was his.
- meaning
- literally great name, as in great landowner
- power source
- rice yield measured in koku, not gold
- leash
- shogun forced them to live in Edo part-time
- end
- abolished 1871, replaced by prefectures and pensions