The title 君主 kunshu as applied to the shogun


There are a few occurrences of this in the early contacts with the West (eg
the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa and some other places) but I find virtually no
discussion of this usage in the literature (apart from a brief mention in a
1991 article by De Palma in Italian). Moreover, in foreign language versions
of the documents where it occurs the word is rendered as Emperor or Sovereign.
There is extensive discussion of the frequent title Taikun as well as the
rarer title King of Japan for the shogun, but I can't find anything on kunshu.
I don't need basic information about this word. I need specifically references
to scholarly discussions of its use--or any occurrences of it being used like
this before 1850 or so. Thank you very much.




君主/monarch is an umbrella term that includes 国王 (king), 天皇 (Japanese emperor),
皇帝 (emperor), and so on. Since it's an umbrella term, individual monarchs are
not directly called 君主 by the people. The "Japanese 君主" always refers to the
天皇/Emperor. (This does not mean that the Japanese 天皇 was actually called 君主 by
the people at any point in history.)

Technically, the word 将軍/Shogun is a **military** position meaning "general".
It's a word that represents the head of all soldiers (or samurai). Although
the 将軍 was the _de facto_ hereditary ruler of Japan in the Edo period, his
position was (nominally) appointed by the emperor. Therefore, my understanding
is that 将軍 is never classified as a type of 君主.

