Shogunate

Sei-i taishōgun, 'great general who subdues the barbarians', was originally a temporary court appointment for commanders of campaigns against the Emishi of northeastern Honshu. Its most famous early holder was Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, appointed in 797. When Minamoto no Yoritomo received the title in 1192, it gained a new meaning: supreme commander of all warriors and head of a permanent government. From then on it was held almost exclusively by descendants of the Minamoto or by those who claimed Minamoto descent – one reason why Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a commoner, ruled instead as imperial regent.

Yoritomo built his government at Kamakura on personal bonds with his vassals (gokenin). Its key institutions were the military governors (shugo) of each province and the land stewards (jitō) on estates, a board of retainers, an administrative office and a board of inquiry for lawsuits. After the Minamoto line ended in 1219, the Hōjō family ruled as regents (shikken) for figurehead shōguns; the Goseibai Shikimoku of 1232 became the basic law of warrior society. After defeating an imperial attempt to overthrow it in 1221, the shogunate supervised the court from its office at Rokuhara in Kyoto. It was weakened by the costs of the Mongol invasions and fell in 1333.

Ashikaga Takauji established the second shogunate in Kyoto itself, beside the imperial court. It relied heavily on the provincial military governors, whose most powerful families supplied the deputy shōgun (kanrei) and dominated its councils. Under the third shōgun, Yoshimitsu, the shogunate reunified the two rival imperial courts in 1392, conducted official trade with Ming China and became a centre of culture. From the mid-fifteenth century it lost control of the provinces, and after the Ōnin War (1467–1477) the shōguns were often puppets of regional warlords. Oda Nobunaga expelled the last Ashikaga shōgun from Kyoto in 1573.

Tokugawa Ieyasu, victor at Sekigahara in 1600, created the most durable and elaborate shogunate. It ruled directly over roughly a quarter of the country's agricultural land, the major cities, mines and ports, while some 260 to 280 daimyō governed their own domains. Senior councillors (rōjū) drawn from hereditary vassal families conducted policy; commissioners (bugyō) administered finance, temples and shrines and the cities; inspectors (metsuke) watched over officials and lords. The Laws for the Military Houses, alternate attendance in Edo and control of foreign relations kept the daimyō in check. The shogunate also supervised the imperial court through its deputy in Kyoto, the Kyoto shoshidai, and through the Laws for the Imperial Court and Nobility of 1615.

The three shogunates differed in their seat, their relationship with the court and the depth of their control over the provinces. The Tokugawa system was the most centralised, although it too left the domains considerable autonomy.

The shōguns never abolished the imperial institution. They derived their legitimacy from appointment by the emperor, and the court kept the power to grant ranks and titles, set the calendar and perform the rituals of state. At times emperors tried to reclaim power – Go-Toba in 1221 and Go-Daigo in 1333 – but only briefly. This dual structure had lasting consequences: when the Tokugawa shogunate was discredited in the 1850s and 1860s, opponents could rally around the emperor as an alternative source of authority.

Western demands to open the country after 1853, the treaties signed without imperial sanction and rising opposition from the domains of Satsuma and Chōshū undermined the Tokugawa. On 9 November 1867 (14th day of the 10th month in the lunar calendar) the fifteenth shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, petitioned the emperor to take back governing authority (taisei hōkan), a step he had announced the day before to domain representatives at Nijō Castle in Kyoto, hoping to retain a leading role in a new order. In January 1868 the court proclaimed the restoration of imperial rule and abolished the office of shōgun; the Boshin War of 1868–1869 defeated the remaining Tokugawa forces.

The shogunates shaped Japanese institutions and culture long after their end: the castle towns that became prefectural capitals, the legal tradition of warrior law, the patronage of Zen, Noh and tea, and the image of the samurai. Historians debate whether the shogunal era should be called 'feudal' in the European sense; the comparison captures the lord–vassal bond and decentralised power, but Japan's shogunates also developed sophisticated bureaucracies, national markets and a stable peace unusual in feudal Europe.