In Japanese history, a Shogun (将軍) was the practical ruler of Japan before the Meiji Era.
Technically, the Japanese term is a shorthand for Seii Taishogun (征夷大将軍), a contraction of the ancient and 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, or the shogunate.
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2 Seii Taishogun of Feudal Period Japan (1185 - 1868 AD) 3 List of Seii Taishoguns 4 Shogunate 5 External links |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 all 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 is) named in this fashion.
Shogun is also the title of a 1975 novel by James Clavell.Seii Taishogun of Heian Period Japan (794 - 1185 AD)
Conquest of the Emishi
Gempei War
Seii Taishogun of Feudal Period Japan (1185 - 1868 AD)
Kamakura Shogunate
Kemmu Restoration
Muromachi and Edo Shogunates
List of Seii Taishoguns
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. External links