te, the final determinations of the
daimyo, were authoritative in every community. And in all these each
province was in a great degree a law unto itself.

The classes of daimyos as arranged and established by Ieyasu were not
altered by his successors, although the number included under each class
was liable to minor changes. Before Ieyasu's time there were three classes
of daimyos, viz.: eighteen _kokushu_, who may be termed lords of
provinces, thirty-two _ryoshu_ or lords of smaller districts, and two
hundred and twelve _joshu_ or lords of castles, that is two hundred and
sixty-two in all. The distinction between the first two was one of rank,
but the third differed from the others in the fact that the assessment in
each case was less than 100,000 _koku_ of rice. The number of _kokushu_
daimiates was increased by the addition of Kii and Owari, to which Ieyasu
appointed two of his sons as daimyos. A third son he appointed daimyo of
Mito, which was already of the _kokushu_ rank. He vacated this place by
compelling the previous holder to accept in place of it another daimiate
of equivalent value.

Ieyasu divided all daimyos into two distinct classes, the _fudai_ and the
_tozama_. The term _fudai_ was used to designate those who were considered
the vassals of the Tokugawa family. The _tozama_ daimyos were those who
were considered as equal to the vassals of the Tokugawa family, but who
were not in fact vassals. Of the former there were originally one hundred
and seventy-seven, and of the latter eighty-six.(232) Twenty-one of the
_fudai_ daimyos were relatives of the shogun's family, of whom three, as
has been stated, were the "honorable families." All the others, numbering
eighteen, bore the name of Matsudaira, one of the family names of Ieyasu,
derived from a small village in the province of Mikawa, where Ieyasu was
born. This was allowed to them as a special honor.

We give here the classification of the daimyos as enumerated by M.
Appert(233) in his list for the epoch about 1850:

1. Go-san-ke (three honorable families) 3
2. Fudai daimyos (vassals of Tokugawa family) 137
3. Tozama daimyos (equal to vassals) 99
4. Kamon (all the other branches of Tokugawa family) 18
5. Daimyos, not classified 6
Total 263

The five leading _tozama_ daimyos were Kaga, Sendai, Aizu, Choshu, and
Satsuma, and al