Things Japanese/Tycoon

by by Basil Hall Chamberlain

 

Tycoon. The literal meaning of this title is "great prince" (大君), It was adopted by some of the Shōguns in their intercourse with foreign states,—Korea first in the seventeenth century, then the Western powers at the time of the opening of Japan. Their object apparently was to magnify their position, and they succeeded; for the European diplomats assumed that the Shōgun was a sort of Emperor, and dubbed him "His Majesty" accordingly.