Shogun
This page is about the Japanese ruler and military rank. For other meanings of shogun, see Shogun (disambiguation). is a military rank and historical title in
Japan. The rank is equivalent to "general," a high officer in an army. As a title, it is the short form of
sei-i taishÅgun (å¾å¤·å¤§å°†è»). The
Imperial Court in Kyoto awarded this title first to the leaders of military expeditions against warlike peoples, and later to the heads of military governments at many times in the
history of Japan.
A shogun's administration is a shogunate or
bakufu (幕府). The latter literally means "tent government" in
Japanese. The tent is symbolic of the role of the military in fighting wars in the field.
The term
sei-i taishÅgun means "
generalissimo who overcomes the barbarians." "Barbarian" is one of several ancient terms for various groups who had not yet become subject to the central government. Among them were the aboriginal
Ainu people who once inhabited
Honshu in addition to
Hokkaido.
Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the
Kamakura shogunate, seized considerable power from the aristocracy in Kyoto. He became the practical ruler of Japan, and received the title
sei-i taishÅgun. Thereafter, the heads of three successive shogunates received the same title. It continued in use until the
Meiji Restoration.
Conquest of the Ainu
Originally, the title of
Seii Taishogun was given to military commanders during the early
Heian Period for the duration of military campaigns against the
Emishi who resisted the governance of the Imperial court based in
Kyoto. The most famous of these shogun was
Sakanoue no Tamuramaro who conquered the
Ainu in the name of
Emperor Kammu. Eventually, the title was abandoned in the later Heian period after the Ainu had been either subjugated or driven to
Hokkaido.
Genpei wars
In the later Heian, one more shogun was appointed.
Minamoto no Yoshinaka was named
sei-i taishÅgun during the
Genpei War only to be killed shortly thereafter by
Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
Kamakura Shogunate
In the 1100s, the wars between the
Minamoto and
Taira families came to a conclusion with the defeat of the
Taira clan in the
Genpei War (1185).
Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the emperor and established a feudal system of government based in
Kamakura in which the military, the
samurai, assumed political power while the
Emperors of Japan and the
aristocracy in
Kyoto remained the figurehead
de jure rulers. In 1192, Yoritomo was awarded the title of
Seii Taishogun by the emperor and the political system he developed with a succession of shogun at the head became known as a shogunate. The Kamakura shogunate lasted for almost 150 years, from 1192 to 1333.
Kemmu Restoration
During the
Kemmu Restoration, after the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, another short-lived shogun arose.
Prince Moriyoshi (also known as Prince Morinaga), son of
Emperor Go-Daigo, was awarded the title of
Seii Taishogun and put in charge of the military. However, Prince Moriyoshi was later put under house arrest and, in 1335, killed by
Ashikaga Tadayoshi..
Muromachi and Edo Shogunates
Next,
Ashikaga Takauji, like Yoritomo a descendant of the Minamoto princes, was awarded the title of
sei-i taishÅgun and established bakufu. The Ashikaga Shogunate lasted from 1338 to 1573.
Subsequently,
Tokugawa Ieyasu seized power and established a government at
Edo (now known as
Tokyo) in 1600. He received the title
sei-i taishÅgun in 1603. The
Tokugawa shogunate lasted until 1868.
The so-called
transitional shoguns, of 1568â€"1598, did not receive the title of
sei-i taishÅgun from the emperor and did not establish shogunates, but did, for a period, hold power over the emperor and most of Japan.
The title
sei-i taishÅgun was abolished during the
Meiji Restoration in 1868, in which effective power was "restored" to the emperor and his appointees. See
Late Tokugawa shogunate.
*
Otomo no Otomaro*
Sakanoue no Tamuramaro*
Bunya no Watamaro (title
Seii ShÅgun)
*
Minamoto no Yoshinaka*Nine
Kamakura shoguns
*
Prince Morinaga (or Moriyoshi)
*
Prince Narinaga (or Nariyoshi)
*Fifteen
Ashikaga shoguns
*Fifteen
Tokugawa shogunsThe term
bakufu originally meant the dwelling and household of a shogun, but in time it came to be generally used for the system of government of a feudal military
dictatorship, exercised by the shogun, and this is the meaning that has been adopted into
English through the term "shogunate."
The
bakufu system was originally established under the
Kamakura shogunate by
Minamoto no Yoritomo. The system was
feudal in nature, with lesser territorial lords pledging their allegiance to greater ones.
Samurai were rewarded for their loyalty with land, which was in turn handed down and divided among their sons. The hierarchy that held this system of government together was reinforced by close ties of loyalty between samurai and their subordinates.
Three primary shogunates were each centered around a family which seized power and received the title of shogun during that regime. One name of the shogunate stems from the location of the headquarters (Kamakura, Muromachi in Kyoto, and Edo). Another name comes from the shogunal family (Ashikaga, Tokugawa).
*
Kamakura Shogunate -
Kamakura period*
Ashikaga Shogunate or Muromachi Bakufu -
Muromachi period*
Tokugawa Shogunate or Edo Bakufu -
Edo periodNote: Some interesting computer games that simulate this fascinating period are:1) Shogunate: Warlords of the Rising Sun - a very popular play-by-email campaign of the final rise of the unifiers of Japan.2) Shogun: Total War - an older PC game of territorial conquest.
*
Ainu people*
Shogun novel
