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In Japanese history, a Shogun
(将軍) was the practical ruler of Japan for most of the time from 1192 to the Meiji Era beginning in 1868.
Technically, the Japanese term is a shorthand for Seii Taishogun (征夷大将軍), a
contraction of the ancient rank of general or generalissimo, highest ranking samurai title meaning "great
generalissimo who overcomes the barbarians". Since the launch of the Kamakura shogunate, the shogun had seized the practical power of ruling Japan, taking power over from
the Imperial Court in Kyoto until the Meiji restoration.
The administration of a Shogun is called Bakufu in Japanese, or the shogunate in English.
1 Seii Taishogun of Heian Period Japan (794 - 1185 CE)
1.1 Conquest of the Emishi
Originally, the Seii Taishogun title 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 shoguns was Sakanoue no Tamuramaro
who conquered the Emishi in the name of the emperor Kammu. Eventually the title was abandoned in the later Heian after the Emishi had been either
subjugated or driven to Hokkaido.
1.2 Gempei War
However, in the later Heian one more, however short-lived, shogun was appointed. Minamoto no Yoshinaka was named Seii Taishogun during the Genpei War only to be killed shortly thereafter by his distant cousin Minamoto no Yoshitsune, brother of Minamoto no Yoritomo.
2 Seii Taishogun of Feudal Period Japan (1185 - 1868 CE)
2.1 Kamakura Shogunate
After the defeat of the Taira clan in the Genpei War in 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the
emperor and became the dictator and de facto ruler of Japan. He
established a feudal system of government based in Kamakura in
which the military, the samurai, assumed all 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 bakufu (tent
government) or Shogunate. From this point in history, all shogun that headed
shogunates were by tradition descendants of the Minamoto princes, the sons of
emperor Seiwa, and the title passed generation to
generation to the eldest sons.
2.2 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 the emperor Go-Daigo was awarded the title of Seii Taishogun and put in charge of the
military. After Ashikaga Takauji, later founder of the Muromachi shogunate, rebelled against the emperor, Prince Moriyoshi
was put under house arrest and killed in 1335 by Takauji's younger brother Ashikaga Tadayoshi.
2.3 Muromachi and Edo Shogunates
In Japanese history, besides Minamoto no Yoritomo whose
Kamakura Shogunate lasted for approximately 150 years, from
1192 to 1333, only Ashikaga Takauji and Tokugawa Ieyasu,
each being descendants of the Minamoto princes, were awarded the title of Seii Taishogun and established bakufu on their own right. The Ashikaga Shogunate lasted from 1338 to 1573, while the Tokugawa Shogunate lasted from
1603 to 1868.
The so-called Transitional shoguns of 1568-1598 were never given the title of Seii
Taishogun by the emperor and did not establish bakufu, but did for a period hold
power over the emperor and most/all of Japan.
The title Seii Taishogun was abolished during the Meiji
Restoration in 1868, in which effective power was "restored" to the emperor and his appointees. See Taisei houkan.
3 List of Seii Taishoguns
4 Shogunate
Bakufu (幕府) originally described the dwelling and household of a
shogun, but in time it came to be generally used in Japanese to describe the system of government of a feudal military dictatorship, exercised by the shoguns (literally "tent government", meaning a military rule), and this is the
meaning that has been adopted in English, known as the
shogunate.
The system of bakufu was originally established under the Kamakura bakufu by Minamoto no
Yoritomo. The military wing of the government came to dominate the civil (imperial) government, so that while the Emperors of Japan still technically led the government, all practical
(and especially military) power rested with the shogun and the daimyo. The system was
essentially "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 loyalty that held together this system of government was reinforced by close ties
of male love between samurai and their apprentices, and the shoguns as well took lovers from among the ranks of the samurai, a
practice known as shudo, "the way of the young", or nanshoku, "male color".
Three primary bakufu periods are usually identified, each centered around a family which tended to dominate the
position of shogun during that regime. In the Japanese language, the time period of each regime is named after the
capital of the bakufu. The Ashikaga and Tokugawa bakufu can also be (and usually are) named in this
fashion.
5 External link
Shogun is also the title of a 1975 novel by James
Clavell.
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