Shogun

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Shogun (English: /ˈʃoʊɡʌn/ SHOH-gun;^[1] Japanese: 将軍, romanized: shōgun, pronounced [ɕoːɡɯɴ] ^ⓘ), officially sei-i taishōgun (征夷大将軍, "Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians"),^[2] was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868.^[3] Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country,^[4] except during parts of the Kamakura period and Sengoku period when the shoguns themselves were figureheads, with real power in the hands of the shikken (執権) of the Hōjō clan and kanrei (管領) of the Hosokawa clan. In addition, Taira no Kiyomori and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were leaders of the warrior class who did not hold the position of shogun, the highest office of the warrior class, yet gained the positions of daijō-daijin (太政大臣, Chancellor of the Realm) and kampaku (関白, Imperial Regent), the highest offices of the aristocratic class. As such, they ran their governments as its de facto rulers.^[5][6][7]

The office of shogun was in practice hereditary, although over the course of the history of Japan several different clans held the position. The title was originally held by military commanders during the Heian period in the eighth and ninth centuries. When Minamoto no Yoritomo gained political ascendency over Japan in 1185, the title was revived to regularize his position, making him the first shogun in the usually understood sense.

It is often said that one must be of the Minamoto lineage to become a shogun, but this is not true. While it is true that the Minamoto lineage was respected as a lineage suitable for the position of shogun, the fourth and fifth shoguns of the Kamakura shogunate were from the Fujiwara lineage (although their mothers were from the Minamoto lineage), and the sixth through ninth shoguns were from the imperial lineage. Oda Nobunaga, who claimed to be a descendant of the Taira clan, was approached for the position of shogun a month before his death.^[8][9][10]

The shogun's officials were collectively referred to as the bakufu (幕府, IPA: [baꜜkɯ̥ɸɯ]; "tent government"); they were the ones who carried out the actual duties of administration, while the imperial court retained only nominal authority.^[11] The tent symbolized the shogun's role as the military's field commander but also denoted that such an office was meant to be temporary. Nevertheless, the institution, known in English as the shogunate (/ˈʃoʊɡəneɪt/ SHOH-gə-nayt), persisted for nearly 700 years, ending when Tokugawa Yoshinobu relinquished the office to Emperor Meiji in 1867 as part of the Meiji Restoration.^[12]