Shogun

Shogun, in full, seii tai shogun (Japanese, “barbarian-subduing generalissimo”), title of the military dictators who ruled Japan almost continuously from 1192 to 1867. The term was first used in the Nara period (710-794), for generals sent against restless tribes in the north-east. It then lapsed until Yoshinaka Minamoto claimed it when he seized the capital Kyoto and cowed the imperial court in 1183. After his death, the emperor awarded the title in 1192 to Yoritomo Minamoto, already overlord of Japan, giving him standing right to crush anyone he deemed to be disturbing the peace, and to appoint provincial officials to supervise the country. This new regime was known as the Kamakura shogunate, since Yoritomo kept his bakufu (literally “tent government”) at Kamakura, away from corrupting court life in Kyoto. After Yoritomo's death in 1199, his line died out, and was supplanted by his in-laws, the Hojo, who installed aristocrats as puppet shoguns while governing as regents. Interrupted by the anti-Hojo “restoration” of 1333-1336 led by Emperor Go-Daigo, shogunal rule was restored by the Ashikaga, who governed in alliance with the daimyo, until daimyo rivalries exploded around 1470. This period was known as the Muromachi shogunate after the Ashikaga residence in Kyoto's Muromachi district. The last Ashikaga shogun abdicated in 1588, but power had already passed to Nobunaga Oda and Hideyoshi Toyotomi, military hegemons of Japan. Ieyasu Tokugawa then became shogun in 1603. Tokugawa shoguns governed for over 250 years, a period called Edo after their capital Edo (now Tokyo). Tokugawa rule lasted until 1867, when its impotence against Western encroachment led to a radical rebellion to “restore” direct imperial rule, the Meiji Restoration.