place_of_death hotta masatoshi
The , usually translated as " Elder ", was one of the highest - ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of ___MASK63___ period Japan . The term refers either to individual Elders , or to the Council of Elders as a whole ; under the first two shoguns , there were only two " Rj ". The number was then increased to five , and later reduced to four . The " Rj " were appointed from the ranks of the " fudai daimys " with domains of between 25 , 000 and 50 , 000 " koku ". A prime minister is the ___MASK74___ senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government , often in a parliamentary or semi - presidential system . In many systems , the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet , and allocates posts to members within the government . In ___MASK74___ systems , the prime minister is the presiding member and chairman of the cabinet . In a minority of systems , notably in semi - presidential systems of government , a prime minister is the official who is appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of the head of state . In parliamentary systems fashioned after the ___MASK14___ system , the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of government and head of the executive branch . In such systems , the head of state or the head of state ' s official representative ( i . e . the monarch , president , or governor - general ) usually holds a largely ceremonial position , although often with reserve powers . ___MASK76___ (" Nippon " or " Nihon " ; formally "" or " Nihon - koku ", means " State of ___MASK76___ ") is a sovereign island nation in Eastern ___MASK45___ . Located in the ___MASK13___ , It is lying off the eastern coast of the ___MASK45___ Mainland ( east of ___MASK20___ , Korea , Russia ) and stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East ___MASK20___ Sea and near Taiwan in the southwest . Origins . Many of the families who formed the ranks of the " fudai daimys " were families which had served the Tokugawa clan since before its rise to national primacy . Some of these include the Honda , Sakai , Sakakibara , Ii , Itakura , and Mizuno clans . Tokugawa Ieyasu ' s " Four Great Generals " Honda Tadakatsu , Sakakibara Yasumasa , Sakai Tadatsugu , and Ii Naomasa  were all pre - ___MASK63___ period " fudai ", and went on to become " fudai daimys ". In addition , some branches of the Matsudaira clan ( from which the Tokugawa clan originated ), while allowed to retain the Matsudaira surname , were " fudai ". The Tokugawa shogunate , also known as the and the , was the last feudal Japanese military government , which existed between 1603 and 1867 . The head of government was the shogun , and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan . The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from ___MASK63___ Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the ___MASK63___ period . This time is also called the Tokugawa period or pre - modern . Hotta Masatoshi (   , December 31 , 1634 -- October 7 , 1684 ) was a daimy ( feudal lord ) in Shimsa Province , and top government advisor and official in the Tokugawa shogunate of ___MASK76___ . He served as rj ( chief advisor ) to Shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna from 1679 -- 80 , and as Tair ( head of the rj council ) under Tokugawa Tsunayoshi from the 12th day of the 11th lunar month of 1681 until his death on 7 October 1684 . A was the military dictator of ___MASK76___ during the period from 1185 to 1868 ( with exceptions ). In ___MASK74___ of this period , the shoguns were the " de facto " rulers of the country ; although nominally they were appointed by the Emperor as a ceremonial formality . The Shogun held almost absolute power over territories through military means . Nevertheless , an unusual situation occurred in the ___MASK28___ period ( 1199  1333 ) upon the death of the first shogun , whereby the Hj clan ' s hereditary titles of " shikken " ( 1199 - 1256 ) and " tokus " ( 1256  1333 ) monopolized the shogunate as dictatorial positions , collectively known as the . The shogun during this 134 - year period met the same fate as the Emperor and was reduced to a figurehead until a coup in 1333 , when the Shogun was restored to power in the name of the Emperor . Tair (  , " great elder ") was a high - ranking official position in the Tokugawa shogunate government of ___MASK76___ , roughly comparable to the office of prime minister . The " tair " presided over the governing " rj " council in the event of an emergency . A " tair " was nominated from among the " fudai daimys ", who worked closely with the Tokugawa traditionally . Generally , the office holder was the shogunate ' s chief policy maker , and provided ___MASK76___ with a capable temporary leader in the absence of a shogun , or in the event that the shogun was incapacitated .