shoguns

Shogun is a historical title in Japan referring to the military rulers who held the real political power in feudal Japan, while the emperor remained the nominal head of state. The term comes from sei-i taishō gun, often translated as “general who subdues the barbarians.” In practice, the shogun headed the shogunate (bakufu), a military government that governed through the samurai class and controlled the daimyō, regional lords.

The first shogunate, the Kamakura shogunate, was established by Minamoto no Yoritomo after the Genpei War and lasted from 1192 to 1333. It introduced a dual authority where military and administrative power rested with the shogun, while the court and religious institutions retained symbolic authority. The Ashikaga (Muromachi) shogunate followed, lasting roughly from 1338 to 1573, with power more dispersed among warring daimyō.

The Tokugawa shogunate, founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara, ruled from 1603 to 1868, with Edo (modern Tokyo) as the political center. This period, the Edo era, featured centralized Bakuhan governance, the alternate attendance system (sankin-kotai) to control daimyō, and a rigid social order. Foreign contact was tightly restricted for much of this time under the sakoku policy.

The shogunate system ended with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which restored power to the emperor and began rapid modernization and centralization of the state. The last shogun was Tokugawa Yoshinobu, who abdicated in 1867–1868.