1.
peerage; title of nobility; rank of nobility
A hereditary or granted rank within a system of nobility. In Japan, the peerage system (華族制度) existed from 1869 to 1947.
爵位を授ける。
To confer a title of nobility.
彼は功績により爵位を与えられた。
He was granted a peerage for his achievements.
戦後の改革で日本の爵位制度は廃止された。
Japan's peerage system was abolished in the postwar reforms.
Japan had a five-rank peerage system modeled on European nobility: 公爵 (duke/prince), 侯爵 (marquis), 伯爵 (count/earl), 子爵 (viscount), and 男爵 (baron). This system was abolished with the 1947 constitution. The word now appears mainly in historical contexts and translations of Western literature. Common collocations: 爵位を授ける (confer a peerage), 爵位を剥奪する (strip of a peerage).