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A shogun (将軍 shōgun?, [ɕoːɡu͍ɴ], literally "military commander" or "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]

Main article: Heian period

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]



Main article: Kenmu restoration

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]


Ashikaga shogunate (1336–1573)[edit]

The tomb of Ashikaga Takauji


Tokugawa Shogunate (1603–1868)[edit]

Main articles: Tokugawa shogunate and Bakumatsu



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.


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.


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.


See also[edit]



Further reading[edit]