History of Japan
Periods Paleolithic before 14,000 BC Jōmon 14,000–300 BC Yayoi 300 BC – 250 AD Kofun 250–538 Asuka 538–710 Nara 710–794 Heian 794–1185 Kamakura 1185–1333 Kenmu Restoration 1333–1336 Muromachi (Ashikaga) Nanboku-chō Sengoku 1336–1573 Azuchi–Momoyama Nanban trade 1568–1603 Edo (Tokugawa) Bakumatsu 1603–1868 Meiji Restoration 1868–1912 Taishō World War I 1912–1926 Shōwa Financial crisis Militarism Pacific War Occupation Post-occupation 1926–1989 Heisei Lost Decade 1989–present
Topics Currency Earthquakes Economy Education Empire Historiography Military Naval Postwar
Glossary Timeline

Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun (1192–1199) of the Kamakura shogunate

A shogun (将軍, shōgun^?, [ɕoːɡu͍ɴ] ( listen), literally "general") was a hereditary military governor in Japan during the shogunate period from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns were the de facto rulers of the country, though officially they were appointed by the emperor.^[1]

The modern rank of shōgun is equivalent to a generalissimo. Although the original meaning of shogun is simply a "general", the title was the short form of sei-i taishōgun (征夷大将軍^?), the governing individual at various times in the history of Japan, ending when Tokugawa Yoshinobu relinquished the office to the Meiji Emperor in 1867.^[2]

A shogun's office or administration is the "shogunate", known in Japanese as the bakufu (幕府^?, literally "tent office/government"), which originally referred to house of the general and later also suggested a private government under a shogun.^[3] The tent symbolized the field commander but also denoted that such an office was meant to be temporary. The shogun's officials were as a collective the bakufu, and were those who carried out the actual duties of administration while the imperial court retained only nominal authority.^[4] In this context, the office of the shōgun was equivalent to that of a viceroy or governor-general, though the shōguns often wielded far greater power than a governor-general would ordinarily have.

Heian period (794–1185)[edit]

Originally, the title of Sei-i Taishōgun ("Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians"^[5]) 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 Kyoto-based imperial court. Ōtomo no Otomaro was the first Sei-i Taishōgun.^[6] The most famous of these shoguns was Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, who conquered the Emishi in the name of Emperor Kanmu. Eventually, the title was abandoned in the later Heian period after the Ainu had been either subjugated or driven to Hokkaidō.

In the later Heian, one more shogun was appointed. Minamoto no Yoshinaka was named sei-i taishōgun during the Gempei War, only to be killed shortly thereafter by Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

Kamakura shogunate (1192–1333)[edit]

In the early 11th century, daimyo protected by samurai came to dominate internal Japanese politics.^[2] Two of the most powerful families – the Taira and Minamoto – fought for control over the declining imperial court. The Taira family seized control from 1160 to 1185, but was defeated by the Minamoto in the Battle of Dan-no-ura. Minamoto no Yoritomo seized certain powers from the central government and aristocracy and established a feudal system based in Kamakura in which the private military, the samurai, gained some political powers while the emperors of Japan and the aristocracy in Japan remained the de jure rulers. In 1192, Yoritomo was awarded the title of Sei-i Taishōgun by the emperor and the political system he developed with a succession of shogun at the head became known as a shogunate. Yoritomo's wife's family, the Hōjō, seized the power from the Kamakura shoguns. When Yoritomo's sons and heirs were assassinated, the shogun became a hereditary figurehead. Real power rested with the Hōjō regents. The Kamakura shogunate lasted for almost 150 years, from 1192 to 1333.

In 1274 and 1281, the Mongol Empire launched invasions against Japan. An attempt by Emperor Go-Daigo to restore imperial rule in 1331 was unsuccessful, but weakened the shogunate significantly and led to its eventual downfall.^[7]

The end of the Kamakura shogunate came when Kamakura fell in 1333, and the Hōjō Regency was destroyed. Two imperial families – the senior Northern Court and the junior Southern Court – had a claim to the throne. The problem was solved with the intercession of the Kamakura Shogunate, who had the two lines alternate. This lasted until 1331, when Go-Daigo (of the Southern Court) tried to overthrow the shogunate in order to stop the alternation. As a result, Go-Daigo was exiled. Around 1334–1336, Ashikaga Takauji helped Go-Daigo regain his throne.^[8]

The fight against the shogunate left the emperor with too many people claiming a limited supply of land. Ashikaga Takauji turned against the emperor when the discontent about the distribution of land grew great enough. In 1336 the emperor was banished again, in favor of a new emperor.^[8]

During the Kemmu Restoration, after the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, another short-lived shogun arose. Prince Moriyoshi (Morinaga), son of Go-Daigo, was awarded the title of Sei-i Taishōgun. However, Prince Moriyoshi was later put under house arrest and, in 1335, killed by Ashikaga Tadayoshi.

Ashikaga shogunate (1336–1573)[edit]

The tomb of Ashikaga Takauji

In 1338 Ashikaga Takauji, like Yoritomo, a descendant of the Minamoto princes, was awarded the title of sei-i taishōgun and established the Ashikaga shogunate, which lasted until 1573. The Ashikaga had their headquarters in the Muromachi district of Kyoto, and the time during which they ruled is also known as the Muromachi Period.

Tokugawa Shogunate (1603–1868)[edit]

Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa Ieyasu seized power and established a government at Edo (now known as Tokyo) in 1600. He received the title sei-i taishōgun in 1603 after he forged a family tree to show he was of Minamoto descent.^[9] The Tokugawa shogunate lasted until 1867, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned as shogun and abdicated his authority to Emperor Meiji.^[10]

During the Edo period, effective power rested with the Tokugawa shogun, not the emperor in Kyoto, even though the former ostensibly owed his position to the latter. The shogun controlled foreign policy, the military, and feudal patronage. The role of the emperor was ceremonial, similar to the position of the Japanese monarchy after the Second World War.^[11]

A shogun was a military leader equivalent to a general, and at various times in the first millennium, shoguns held temporary power, but it became a symbol of military control over the country. The establishment of the shogunate (or bakufu) at the end of the twelfth century saw the beginning of samurai control of Japan for 700 years until the Meiji Restoration in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Legacy[edit]

Today the head of the Japanese government is the prime minister; the usage of the term "shogun" has nevertheless continued in colloquialisms. A retired prime minister who still wields considerable power and influence behind the scenes is called a "shadow shogun" (闇将軍, yami shōgun^?), a sort of modern incarnation of the cloistered rule. Examples of "shadow shoguns" are former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka and the politician Ichirō Ozawa.^[12]

The label shogun is also commonly used, often ironically with the honorific -sama, to refer to Kim Jong-il, since several of his laudatory titles include the word "general" (Hangul: 장군님; hanja: 將軍). It is also a reference to his being essentially a military dictator, as well as to North Korea's isolation, similar to the policy of sakoku.

Shogunate[edit]

The term bakufu originally meant the dwelling and household of a shogun, but in time, it came to be used for the system of government of a feudal military dictatorship, exercised in the name of the shogun; this is the broader meaning conveyed by the term "shogunate".

The shogunate system was originally established under the Kamakura shogunate by Minamoto no Yoritomo. Although theoretically the state, and therefore the emperor, held ownership of all land of Japan. The system had some feudal elements, with lesser territorial lords pledging their allegiance to greater ones. Samurai were rewarded for their loyalty with agricultural surplus, usually rice, or labor services from peasants. In contrast to European feudal knights, samurai were not landowners.^[13] The hierarchy that held this system of government together was reinforced by close ties of loyalty between samurai and their subordinates.

Each shogunate was dynamic, not static. Power was constantly shifting and authority was often ambiguous. The study of the ebbs and flows in this complex history continues to occupy the attention of scholars. Each shogunate encountered competition. Sources of competition included the emperor and the court aristocracy, the remnants of the imperial governmental systems, the shōen system, the great temples and shrines, the shugo and the jitō, the kokujin and early modern daimyo. Each shogunate reflected the necessity of new ways of balancing the changing requirements of central and regional authorities.^[14]

See also[edit]

• List of shoguns
• History of Japan
• Feudalism
• Samurai
• Ashigaru
• Daimyo

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Beasley, William G. (1955). Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–1868. London: Oxford University Press. [reprinted by RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2001. 10-ISBN 0-19-713508-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-19-713508-2 (cloth)]
• Columbia University (2000). "Japan: History: Early History to the Ashikaga Shoguns". Factmonster. Retrieved 2007-04-17. 
• Brazell, Karen (November 1972). "The Changing of the Shogun 1289: An Excerpt from Towazugatari". The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese 8 (1): 58–65. doi:10.2307/489093. JSTOR 489093. 
• Brock, Karen L. (Winter 1995). "The Shogun's 'Painting Match'". Monumenta Nipponica 50 (4): 433–484. doi:10.2307/2385589. JSTOR 2385589. 
• Grossberg, Kenneth A. (August 1976). "Bakufu Bugyonin: The Size of the lower bureaucracy in Muromachi Japan". The Journal of Asian Studies 35 (4): 651–654. doi:10.2307/2053677. JSTOR 2053677. 
• Grossberg, Kenneth A. (Spring 1976). "From Feudal Chieftain to Secular Monarch. The Development of Shogunal Power in Early Muromachi Japan". Monumenta Nipponica 31 (1): 29–49. doi:10.2307/2384184. JSTOR 2384184. 
• "Japan". The World Book Encyclopedia. World Book. 1992. pp. 34–59. ISBN 0-7166-0092-7. 
• Mass, Jeffrey P. and William B. Hauser, eds. (1985). The Bakufu in Japanese History. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• McCune, George M. (May 1946). "The Exchange of Envoys between Korea and Japan During the Tokugawa Period". The Far Eastern Quarterly 5 (3): 308–325. doi:10.2307/2049052. JSTOR 2049052. 
• Ravina, Mark (November 1995). "State-Building and Political Economy in Early-modern Japan". The Journal of Asian Studies 54 (4): 997–1022. doi:10.2307/2059957. JSTOR 2059957. 
• Seigle, Cecilia Segawa (December 1999). "The Shogun's Consort: Konoe Hiroko and Tokugawa Ienobu". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 59 (2): 485–522. doi:10.2307/2652720. JSTOR 2652720. 
• Hurst, C. Cameron, III; Smith, Henry (November 1981). "Review of Learning from Shogun: Japanese History and Western Fantasy, by Henry Smith". The Journal of Asian Studies 41 (1): 158–159. doi:10.2307/2055644. JSTOR 2055644. 
• Sansom, George. 1961. A History of Japan, 1134–1615. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-8047-0525-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-8047-0525-7
• "Shogun". The World Book Encyclopedia 17. World Book. 1992. pp. 432–433. ISBN 0-7166-0092-7. 
• Sinsengumi, Bakumatuisin (2003). 仙台藩主. Bakusin (in Japanese). Retrieved 2007-04-17. 
• Smith, Henry (ed.) (1980). Learning from Shogun: Japanese History and Western Fantasy (PDF). Santa Barbara: University of California Program in Asian Studies. 
• Totman, Conrad (1966). "Political Succession in The Tokugawa Bakufu: Abe Masahiro's Rise to Power, 1843–1845". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 26: 102–124. doi:10.2307/2718461. JSTOR 2718461. 
• Wakabayashi, Bob Tadashi (Winter 1991). "In Name Only: Imperial Sovereignty in Early Modern Japan". Journal of Japanese Studies 17 (1): 25–57. doi:10.2307/132906. JSTOR 132906.