Shogun

The hereditary military ruler of Japan from 1192 to 1867, commander in chief under nominal imperial rule.

Overview

Shogun, short for sei i taishogun, great general who subdues the eastern barbarians, began as a temporary imperial commission against the Emishi and became permanent when Minamoto no Yoritomo took the title in 1192, founding the Kamakura shogunate. For nearly seven centuries the shogun governed Japan while the emperor reigned in Kyoto: the Kamakura, Ashikaga, and Tokugawa shogunates each defined an era. The Tokugawa shogunate fell in 1867 with the Meiji restoration returning power to the throne. The office was the supreme military command of the samurai state, and its history is the frame of Japanese medieval and early modern history.