Kashindan

Kashindan (家臣団) was an institution of the retainers (kashin) of the shogun or a daimyo in Japan that became a class of samurai. It was divided into the military commanders (bankata) and the civil officers (yakukata).

In the Nanboku-chō and Muromachi periods, the kashindan began to include members of the clan that it served. In the Sengoku period, in response to the need for a strong military organization with a centralized power structure, the daimyo organized their own kashindan as a standing army. By the Edo period, they had become a discrete class of samurai, and each family was paid an annual stipend according to its rank. The kashindan was abolished in 1871 as part of the Meiji Restoration.