Ministry of the Royal Household (Chisei)
| 宮内省 Kunai-shō | |
 Emblem of the Ministry of the Royal Household | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1772 |
| Preceding agencies | |
| Jurisdiction |  Chisei |
| Headquarters | Royal City, Eito |
| Minister responsible | |
| Parent agency | Grand Council of State |
| Child agencies | |
The Ministry of the Royal Household is a Chiseian government ministry responsible for managing the administrative, financial and ceremonial affairs of the Chiseian monarchy, the Royal Council and the Royal City. Beyond this, it also controls the Bureau of the Royal Capital, which is responsible for the administration, governance and security of the Capital Province.
History
Previous organisations
The Ministry's pre-unification equivalents were the Shirakawan Royal Household Ministry and the Saramosiri Department of Ceremonies. Both organizations were essentially similar in role and structure, administering the affairs of their respective monarchs and their courts, though they differed over time in terms of their relative importance.
The Shirakawan Household Ministry had been founded in 1594 with the coronation of the new Shun dynasty in the aftermath of the collapse of the Yashiman empire, and initially was solely concerned with ceremonies and the management of the Royal estate, as the early Shun dynasts were effectively puppets of the Takeshima clan. However, the Ministry would later play a crucial role in the Affair of Ceremonies in 1644, a Shun-Takeshima political dispute over religious authority that would ultimately result in the restoration of the Daiō and the Royal Court to real political power. This development would greatly strengthen the political capital of the Ministry.
By comparison, the Ministry's Saramosiri equivalent was consistently at the heart of government. Along with Royal matters, it also filled the role of the Shirakawan Ministry of Ceremonies, exercising control over the examined bureaucracy and aristocracy of the realm.
A notable feature of both the Ministry's predecessors, and it's early history, was the reliance on eunuchs, who formed the majority of the staff in the Royal Household, owing to their perception as being politically neutral and uninterested in careerism or dynastic struggles. In 1610, the Shirakawan Household Ministry employed over 20,000 eunuchs, and this had risen to almost 100,000 by 1750.
Unification period
The unification of Shirakawa and Saramosir in 1674, under the Treaty of Sumura, did not immediately end the independence of the two ministries, as the royal authorities of the states remained formally seperate until the Dual successions of Grand King Keizo in 1702 and 1711. Even then, the two bureaucracies and regional officials fiercely resisted integration. In 1714, for example, the Chancellor of Shirakawa was assassinated in Nayoro, while in 1725 several Commanders of Royal colonial holdings in Valeya denied harbour rights to Saramosiri-flagged vessels.
The integration issue would be conclusively solved only in the 1770s, almost a century after the kingdoms were first joined, with the Shokyō reforms of Grand Queen Sensō, which thoroughly purged the civil service and radically overhauled the civil examination structure across the Chiseian empire. With many of the older aristocratic lines shaken out of government and replaced by military families and close allies of the Crown, it was possible for many redundant administrative bodies to now be forcefully merged, and the new Ministry of the Royal Household was consequently fully established by around 1772, headquartered in the newly constructed Royal City, in Eito.
At the height of the Royal autocracy in Chisei, from the 1780s to 1790s, the Household Ministry held a great deal of informal authority, as it effectively controlled all access to the monarch and the Royal Court - a practical requirement for political favour in this period - and the Chamberlains of the Ministry generally percieved as the second-most powerful individual in the country after the monarch, ahead of even the Royal Chancellor.
19th century
The central, dominating position of the Household Ministry is commonly attested to be among the grievances that contributed towards the outbreak of the Taihei revolution in 1802; within the regionalist camp of the revolutionaries, many key financiers and leadership figures were themselves dispossessed court aristocrats, who were either discontent with unification itself or with their consequent removal from the administrative hierarchy, while the revolutionary radicals included many younger civil servants who ideologically despised the unmeritocratic and unrepresentative autocracy. In his address to the Popular Assembly in 1804, following the Battle of Aso, Hamada Katashi explicitly denounced the Ministry and called for its abolition as one of his Nine demands.
However, in spite of public sentiment, the monarchy and the Household ministry both survived the revolution. As a compromise, the Grand Law of 1825 put into place major limits on the power of the Daiō and once again reformed the civil service, widening access to civil examinations and allowing for the elections of some officials, most notably the Royal Chancellor and the newly created office of Prime Minister. From then on, the Minister of the Royal Household would always be appointed by the Prime Minister, and would typically be a member of the Heavenly Assembly.
During the Kōshin democracy period of 1824 - 1851, the direct governance of the royal capital in Eito, although declared to remain under royal jurisdiction, was shifted away from the Crown and Court itself and placed under the purview of the Household Ministry, resulting in the foundation of the Bureau of the Royal Capital. The rest of the Ministry's structure also underwent significant reform and modernisation, with the Royal Guard Regiment itself being moved under the authority of the Royal Army, while the Royal Guard Office became a primarily administrative body with a smaller civilian security component.
In 1868, the Ministry of Royal Ceremonies was merged into the Household Ministry, and reformed as the Royal Ceremonies Agency. The Ministry thereafter moved into the Ministry of Ceremonies old headquarters in the southern wing of the White Palace, where it remains today.
Conciliar Government
After the deposition of the civilian government by the New Year Rebellion in 1924, the Ministry of the Royal Household became subordinate to the ministerial committee of the Council of Elders, the executive body of the new military regime. The authority of the Ministry in most areas was curtailed, and there was a general purge of officials.
During the war years, the Ministry, lacking a minister, would increasingly come under the personal authority of the Grand Queen. This development would ultimately have great repercussions for the naval junta, as it provided the monarchy itself with control over the day-day operations of the Royal City and Capital. Grand Queen Kaoruko would famously deny entry into the City to Marshal Shiba Amame - recently made Chairwoman of the Council - in 1949, and placed her under a short period of de-facto house arrest, as a show of force to speed along the process of transition to civilian government.
With the institution of the Reformed Grand Law in 1954 and the return of democracy, the Ministry would again return to civilian leadership under the Great Council of State, though the appointment of it's chief minister now fell to the Chancellor instead.
Organization
The Ministry is headed by the Minister of the Royal Household - assisted by the Deputy-Minister of the Royal Household - and answering to the Grand Minister of the Center and the Major Counselor of the Controlling Board of Ceremonies. The Minister is represented in the Great Council of State, and the position is considered among the most important appointments within the Department of the Center.
The main elements of the Ministry are:
- the Royal Secretariat
- the Royal Estates Agency
- the Royal Ceremonies Agency
- the Bureau of the Royal Capital
The current Minister and Grand Steward is Hazeyama Shiroichi.
The Ministry's primary headquarters are in southern wing of the White Palace; the Ministry of the Royal Household is the only Ministry to be headquartered within the grounds of the Royal residence proper, rather than in the surrounding Royal City.