Sangi

was an associate counselor in the Imperial court of Japan from the 8th century until the Meiji period in the 19th century. This was a position in the daijō-kan, or early feudal Japanese government. It was established in 702 by the Code of Taihō. In the ranks of the Imperial bureaucracy, the Sangi came between the Shōnagon (minor councillors) and those with more narrowly defined roles, such as the Sadaiben and Udaiben who were the administrators charged with oversight of the eight ministries of the government. In an early review of the Imperial hierarchy, Julius Klaproth's 1834 supplement to Nihon Odai Ichiran conflated the hierarchical position with a functional role as the director of palace affairs.