First shogun There is no consensus among the various authors since some sources consider
Tajihi no Agatamori the first, others say
Ōtomo no Otomaro, other sources assure that the first was
Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, while others avoid the problem by just mentioning from the first
Kamakura shogun
Minamoto no Yoritomo. Originally, the title of
sei-i taishōgun ("Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians") 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.
Heian period (794–1185) Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758–811) was one of the first shoguns of the early
Heian period. Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758–811) (Note: according to historical sources
Ōtomo no Otomaro also had the title of sei-i taishōgun).
The regency political system and cloistered rule The shoguns of this period had no real political power, and the imperial court was in charge of politics. From the mid-9th century to the mid-11th century, the
Fujiwara clan controlled political power. They excluded other clans from the political center and monopolized the highest positions in the court, such as , , and , reaching their peak at the end of the 10th century under
Fujiwara no Michinaga and
Fujiwara no Yorimichi. Later, in the mid-11th century,
Emperor Go-Sanjo weakened the power of the
sesshō and
kampaku by presiding over politics himself, and when the next emperor,
Shirakawa, abdicated and became a
cloistered emperor and began a
cloistered rule, the
sesshō and
kampaku lost their real political authority and became nominal, effectively ending the Fujiwara regime. He had served
Fujiwara no Tadahira as a young man, but eventually won a power struggle within the
Taira clan and became a powerful figure in the
Kanto region. In 939,
Fujiwara no Haruaki, a powerful figure in the
Hitachi province, fled to Masakado. He was wanted for tyranny by
Fujiwara no Korechika, a who oversaw the province of Hitachi province, and Fujiwara no Korechika demanded that Masakado hand over Fujiwara no Haruaki. Masakado refused, and war broke out between Masakado and Fujiwara no Korechika, with Masakado becoming an enemy of the imperial court. Masakado proclaimed that the Kanto region under his rule was independent of the imperial court and called himself the . In response, the imperial court sent a large army led by
Taira no Sadamori to kill Masakado. As a result, Masakado was killed in battle in February 940. He is still revered as one of the three great of Japan.
The birth of the first warrior class government was the first person born of the warrior class to rise to the highest rank of nobility and the first to establish a de facto samurai government. However, when Taira no Kiyomori used his power to have the child of his daughter
Taira no Tokuko and
Emperor Takakura installed as
Emperor Antoku, there was widespread opposition.
Prince Mochihito, no longer able to assume the imperial throne, called upon the
Minamoto clan to raise an army to defeat the Taira clan, and the
Genpei War began. In the midst of the Genpei War,
Minamoto no Yoshinaka expelled the Taira clan from Kyoto, and although initially welcomed by the hermit Emperor Go-Shirakawa, he became estranged and isolated due to the disorderly military discipline and lack of political power under his command. He staged a coup, overthrew the emperor's entourage, and became the first of the Minamoto clan to assume the office of . In response,
Minamoto no Yoritomo sent
Minamoto no Noriyori and
Minamoto no Yoshitsune to defeat Yoshinaka, who was killed within a year of becoming shogun. In 1185, the Taira clan was finally defeated in the
Battle of Dan-no-ura, and the Minamoto clan came to power.
Kamakura shogunate (1185–1333) , the first shogun (1192–1199) of the
Kamakura shogunate There are various theories as to the year in which the Kamakura period and Kamakura shogunate began. In the past, the most popular theory was that the year was 1192, when Minamoto no Yoritomo was appointed . Later, the prevailing theory was that the year was 1185, when Yoritomo established the , which controlled military and police power in various regions, and the , which was in charge of tax collection and land administration. Japanese history textbooks as of 2016 do not specify a specific year for the beginning of the Kamakura period, as there are various theories about the year the Kamakura shogunate was established.
Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the central government and aristocracy and by 1192 established a
feudal system based in
Kamakura in which the private military, the
samurai, gained some political powers while the Emperor and the
aristocracy remained the
de jure rulers. In 1192, Yoritomo was awarded the title of
sei-i taishōgun by
Emperor Go-Toba and the political system he developed with a succession of shoguns as the head became known as a shogunate.
Hojo Masako's (Yoritomo's wife) family, the
Hōjō, seized power from the Kamakura shoguns. In 1199, Yoritomo died suddenly at the age of 53, and the 18-year-old
Minamoto no Yoriie took over as second shogun. To support the young Yoriie, the decisions of the shogunate were made by a 13-man council, including
Hojo Tokimasa and his son
Hojo Yoshitoki, but this was effectively dismantled shortly afterwards when one of the key members lost his political position and two others died of illness.
Puppetization of the shogun by the shikken shifted the source of power in the shogunate from the shogun to the shogun's assistant,
shikken, and established the rule of the
Hōjō clan. When Minamoto no Yoriie fell ill in 1203, a power struggle broke out between the
Hojo clan and
Hiki Yoshikazu, and Hojo Tokimasa destroyed the
Hiki clan. Tokimasa then installed the 12-year-old
Minamoto no Sanetomo as the third shogun, puppeting him while himself becoming the first and assuming actual control of the shogunate. Hojo Yoshitoki later assassinated Minamoto no Yoriie. After the sudden death of Hojo Yoshitoki in 1224,
Hojo Yasutoki became the third
shikken, and after the death of Hojo Masako in 1225, the administration of the shogunate returned to a council system. During the reign of
Hojo Tokimune, the eighth
shikken and seventh
tokusō, the shogunate twice defeated the
Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274 and 1281. The shogunate defeated the Mongols with the help of samurai called , lords in the service of the shogunate. However, since the war was a war of national defense and no new territory was gained, the shogunate was unable to adequately reward the
gokenin, and their dissatisfaction with the shogunate grew. In 1285, during the reign of
Hojo Sadatoki, the ninth
shikken and
eighth tokusō, Adachi Yasumori and his clan, who had been the main vassals of the Kamakura shogunate, were destroyed by Taira no Yoritsuna, further strengthening the ruling system of the
tokusō, which emphasized blood relations. In other words, Japanese politics was a multiple puppet structure: Emperor, shogun, shikken, tokusō, and naikanrei. In response to
gokenin's dissatisfaction with the shogunate,
Emperor Go-Daigo planned to raise an army against the shogunate, but his plan was leaked and he was exiled to Oki Island in 1331. In 1333, Emperor Go-Daigo escaped from Oki Island and again called on
gokenin and samurai to raise an army against the shogunate.
Kusunoki Masashige was the first to respond to the call, sparking a series of rebellions against the shogunate in various places.
Ashikaga Takauji, who had been ordered by the shogunate to suppress the forces of Emperor Go-Daigo, turned to the emperor's side and attacked
Rokuhara Tandai. Then, in 1333,
Nitta Yoshisada invaded Kamakura and the Kamakura shogunate fell, and the Hōjō clan was destroyed. Emperor Go-Daigo rejected
cloistered rule and the shogunate and abolished the
sesshō and
kampaku in favour of an emperor-led government. He also began building a new palace and established four new administrative bodies. However, the nobles who had long been out of politics and the newly appointed samurai were unfamiliar with administrative practices, and the court was unable to handle the drastic increase in lawsuits. Emperor Go-Daigo gave high positions and rewards only to the nobles, and the warriors began to swear allegiance to Ashikaga Takauji, who was willing to give up his personal fortune to give them such rewards.
Ashikaga Takauji, like Minamoto no Yoritomo, a descendant of the
Minamoto princes,
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third shogun, negotiated peace with the Southern court, and in 1392 he reunited the two courts by absorbing the Southern court, ending the 58-year Nanboku-cho period. Yoshimitsu continued to hold power after passing the shogunate to his son Ashikaga Yoshimochi in 1395, becoming , the highest rank of the nobility, and remaining in power until his death in 1408. In 1428,
Ashikaga Yoshimochi, the fourth shogun, was ill and the question of his succession arose.
Ashikaga Yoshikazu, the 5th shogun, died of illness at the age of 19, so the 6th shogun was chosen from among Yoshimochi's four brothers, and to ensure fairness, a lottery was held. The sixth shogun was
Ashikaga Yoshinori. However, he was not educated to be a shogun, and his temperamental and despotic behavior caused resentment, and he was assassinated by
Akamatsu Mitsusuke during the
Kakitsu Rebellion. This led to instability in the Ashikaga shogunate system.
Ōnin war and Sengoku period Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the 8th shogun, tried to strengthen the power of the shogun, but his close associates did not follow his instructions, leading to political chaos and increasing social unrest. Since he had no sons, he tried to install his younger brother
Ashikaga Yoshimi as the ninth shogun, but when his wife
Hino Tomiko gave birth to
Ashikaga Yoshihisa, a conflict arose among the
shugo daimyo as to whether Yoshimi or Yoshihisa would be the next shogun. The
Hatakeyama and
Shiba clans were also divided into two opposing factions over succession within their own clans, and
Hosokawa Katsumoto and
Yamana Sōzen, who were father-in-law and son-in-law, were politically at odds with each other. In 1467, these conflicts finally led to the
Ōnin War between the Eastern Army, led by Hosokawa Katsumoto and including
Hatakeyama Masanaga, Shiba Yoshitoshi, and Ashikaga Yoshimi, and the Western Army, led by Yamana Sōzen and including Hatakeyama Yoshinari, Shiba Yoshikado, and Ashikaga Yoshihisa. In 1469, the war spread to the provinces, but in 1473, Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen, the leaders of both armies, were dead, and in 1477, the war ended when the western lords, including Hatakeyama Yoshinari and
Ōuchi Masahiro, withdrew their armies from Kyoto.
Hosokawa Takakuni, who came to power later, installed
Ashikaga Yoshiharu as the 12th shogun in 1521. In 1549,
Miyoshi Nagayoshi banished the 12th shogun and his son Ashikaga Yoshiteru from Kyoto and seized power. From this point on, the Miyoshi clan continued to hold power in and around Kyoto until
Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto in 1568. , famous as a great swordsman According to
Yagyū Munenori, a swordsmanship instructor in the Tokugawa Shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshiteru was one of the five best swordsmen of his time. According to several historical books, including
Luís Fróis'
Historia de Japam, he fought hard with
naginata and
tachi during a raid, defeating many of his enemies, but eventually ran out of strength and was killed.
Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573–1603) The Azuchi-Momoyama period refers to the period when
Oda Nobunaga and
Toyotomi Hideyoshi were in power. The name "Azuchi-Momoyama" comes from the fact that Nobunaga's castle,
Azuchi Castle, was located in
Azuchi, Shiga, and
Fushimi Castle, where Hideyoshi lived after his retirement, was located in Momoyama. Although the two leaders of the warrior class during this period were not given the title of , Oda Nobunaga was given a title almost equal to it, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi a higher one. Nobunaga was given the title of , an official position as the number three in the imperial court since ancient times, and the title of , which meant leader of the warrior class. This title was a highly prestigious title given to the leader of the warrior class, similar to the title . This was the first time since
Minamoto no Sanetomo in 1218 that a member of the warrior class had been appointed
udaijin. Previously, the only warrior class members appointed to higher positions than
udaijin were
Taira no Kiyomori and
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu as , and
Ashikaga Yoshinori and
Ashikaga Yoshimasa as . Nobunaga was betrayed by his vassal
Akechi Mitsuhide, who died in the
Honnō-ji incident. It is believed that about a month before his death, Nobunaga was approached by the imperial court to accept one of the following positions: ,
daijō-daijin, or shogun. As a result, he was posthumously promoted to
daijō-daijin in 1582. Despite his peasant background, he rose through the ranks under Nobunaga, becoming ,
samurai,
sengoku daimyo, and finally, after Nobunaga's death, and . It was the first time in history that a non-aristocrat by birth became a
kampaku. He obtained these titles, the highest ranks of the aristocracy, by being adopted into the
Konoe family and formally becoming an aristocrat. He then passed the position and title of
kampaku to his nephew,
Toyotomi Hidetsugu. He remained in power as , the title of retired
kampaku, until his death. There are various theories as to why he refused or failed to receive the title of shogun, but the fact that he came from a peasant background seems to have had something to do with it. Hideyoshi died of illness at Fushimi Castle at the age of 63. However, having only the young Hideyori as Hideyoshi's successor weakened the Toyotomi regime. Today, the loss of all of Hideyoshi's adult heirs is considered the main reason for the downfall of the Toyotomi clan. Hideyoshi's younger brother,
Toyotomi Hidenaga, who had supported Hideyoshi's rise to power as a leader and strategist, had already died of illness in 1591, and his nephew, Toyotomi Hidetsugu, who was Hideyoshi's only adult successor, was forced to commit seppuku in 1595 along with many other vassals on Hideyoshi's orders for suspected rebellion. In order to establish the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, he exchanged the fiefdoms of various daimyo to increase or decrease their areas of control. The who had sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu before the Battle of Sekigahara were reassigned to various locations between Edo, the base of the Tokugawa shogunate, and
Osaka, where Toyotomi Hideyoshi's
concubine,
Yodo-dono, and his son, Toyotomi Hideyori, were located. On the other hand, he reassigned the who had submitted to Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara, to remote areas separated from politically important regions. Then, in 1614 and 1615, he twice attacked
Osaka Castle, forcing Yodo-dono and Toyotomi Hideyori to commit suicide and destroying the
Toyotomi clan (
Siege of Osaka), thereby eliminating any resistance that might have stood in the way of Tokugawa rule in Japan and consolidating the power of the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1615, the Tokugawa shogunate enacted the to control the imperial court. The first article implied that the emperor should not be involved in politics and that what he did should be academic. The following articles regulated the appointment of the and , as well as detailed regulations on the dress of the emperor and the court nobles. It also stipulated that the shogunate could intervene in the revision of the
era name, which had originally been the prerogative of the imperial court. It also stipulated that nobles could be exiled if they disobeyed the orders of the shogunate. 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. In 1617, a month before his death, Ieyasu was appointed . The fifth shogun,
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, enforced an animal protection law called the from 1685 to 1709. According to earlier theories, this was a bad law that demanded extreme animal protection and severe punishment for violators. Today, however, the law is seen as less extreme and more protective of human life, and is credited with sweeping away the rough and tumble spirit of the people that had persisted since the Sengoku period and improving the sense of ethics among the Japanese people. In the early Edo period, Japan was the world's largest producer of gold and silver, but by the second half of the 17th century, these resources had been almost completely depleted, and most of the gold and silver produced was shipped out of the country, leaving the shogunate in financial difficulties. The eighth shogun,
Tokugawa Yoshimune, implemented a series of reforms known as the
Kyōhō Reforms. He reduced the shogunate's expenses while increasing revenue by requiring feudal lords to contribute rice to the shogunate in exchange for cutting the length of in half. He increased the revenue of the shogunate by 20% by encouraging the development of new rice fields. He also encouraged the cultivation of cash crops such as
sweet potatoes and
sugar cane, which allowed agriculture to flourish and increased tax revenues. He issued new money with a reduced gold content to prevent price increases. He learned from the
Great Fire of Meireki, which killed 100,000 people, and built extensive roads and firebreaks around the city. He established a to receive petitions from the common people, which led to the formation of a firefighting organization by the townspeople and the establishment of a
Koishikawa Yojosho (Koishikawa Hospital) where the common people could receive medical care. Tanuma Okitsugu, who held the position of , during the reign of
Tokugawa Ieharu, the 10th shogun, adopted a policy of mercantilism. Since the Kyōhō Reforms of Tokugawa Yoshimune had already made it impossible to collect more taxes from the peasants, Okitsugu began collecting taxes in exchange for granting exclusive business rights to the . To stimulate commerce, he also attempted to unify the monetary system by minting a large number of new coins that could be conveniently used in both eastern Japan, where gold coins were widely used, and western Japan, where silver coins were widely used, and distributing them throughout Japan.
Tokugawa Ienari, the 11th shogun, ruled the shogunate for 54 years, first as shogun from 1787 to 1837 and then as
Ōgosho from 1837 to 1841. His 50-year reign was the longest of any shogun. Prior to his reign, Japan had suffered major earthquakes, several volcanic eruptions, droughts, floods and urban fires, and the finances of the shogunate were strained. Therefore, during Ienari's reign, from 1787 to 1793,
Matsudaira Sadanobu led the
Kansei Reforms to improve the finances of the shogunate. After Ienari's death, from 1841 to 1843,
Mizuno Tadakuni led the
Tenpo Reforms, but the effects of these reforms were limited. Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest
court ranks, higher than most court nobles. They were made of court rank upon assuming office, then , and the highest rank of was conferred upon them upon their death. The Tokugawa shogunate established that the court ranks granted to daimyo by the imperial court were based on the recommendation of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the court ranks were used to control the daimyo.
The Bakumatsu era and the end of the shogunate and the warrior class , the last shogun The beginning of the
Bakumatsu era at the end of the Edo period is the subject of various theories, and can be dated to the 1820s and 1830s, when the shogunate's rule became unstable, or to the
Tenpō Reforms of 1841–1843, or to
Matthew C. Perry's arrival in Japan in 1853 and his call for the opening of the country. On the other hand, the end point is clear, when the 15th Shogun,
Tokugawa Yoshinobu, returned the authority to govern Japan to
Emperor Meiji. During this period, the shogunate, the imperial court, the various , and the samurai were deeply divided into two factions: the , which favored the shogunate's leadership in dealing with domestic and foreign crises, and the , which recommended that the shogunate form a coalition with the powerful
han (daimyo domain) and the imperial court. The Nanki faction favored
Tokugawa Iemochi as the successor to the 13th shogun,
Tokugawa Iesada, while the Hitotsubashi favored
Tokugawa Yoshinobu. When the shogunate concluded the
Convention of Kanagawa in 1854 and the
Treaty of Amity and Commerce in 1858, the Hitotsubashi faction opposed these treaties, but the shogunate captured and executed them in the
Ansei Purge. In retaliation, Hitotsubashi samurai assassinated
Ii Naosuke, the in the
Sakuradamon Incident. To win over the Hitotsubashi faction, the shogunate advocated a and welcomed
Kazunomiya, the younger sister of
Emperor Komei, as the wife of the 14th shogun, Tokugawa Iemochi, but the Hitotsubashi faction condemned this political marriage. The
Chōshū Domain was the most radical, advocating the overthrow of the shogunate, emperor-centered politics, and the defeat of foreign powers. They expanded their political power through exchanges with
Sanjo Sanetomi and others in the imperial court who shared their ideology. In response, the
Satsuma and
Aizu domains and some aristocrats who supported the
Kōbu gattai expelled Sanjo Sanetomi and the Chōshū Domain from Kyoto in a political uprising on August 18 of the lunar calendar in 1863. In 1864, some forces of the Chōshū Domain marched toward Kyoto in the
Kinmon incident, but the combined forces of the shogunate, the Satsuma Domain, and the Aizu Domain defeated the Chōshū Domain. In 1864, the Shogunate sent a large force against the rebellious Chōshū Domain in the
First Chōshū expedition. The Shogunate won the war without a fight, as the leaders of the Chōshū Domain committed
seppuku. Meanwhile, the Chōshū Domain was defeated by foreign allied forces in the
Shimonoseki campaign, and the Satsuma Domain engaged the British forces in the
Bombardment of Kagoshima. Both domains realized that Japan was militarily behind the Western powers, and they promoted reforms within their domains while strengthening their will to overthrow the shogunate. From 1868 to 1869, the imperial forces, led by the Chōshū and Satsuma domains, and the former shogunate forces, led by the Aizu Domain, fought the
Boshin War, which the imperial forces won. With this war, the domestic pacification of the imperial forces was nearly complete, and with the
Meiji Restoration, Japan began to rapidly modernize and emerge as an international military and economic power. The rapid modernization of Japan during the
Meiji era (1868–1912) was aided by the fact that, under the rule of successive Tokugawa shoguns, many Japanese were educated in and had a thriving publishing culture. The
Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 was the last battle between the imperial forces and the disenfranchised ex-samurai and the last civil war in Japan. As a result of this war, the warrior class ended its history. The Honjō Masamune was inherited by successive shoguns and it represented the Tokugawa shogunate. It was crafted by swordsmith
Masamune (1264–1343) and recognized as one of the finest
Japanese swords in history. After World War 2, in December 1945,
Tokugawa Iemasa gave the sword to a police station at
Mejiro and it went missing.
Heirs of the Tokugawa shogun depicting women in the enjoying the
cherry blossoms During the reign of the third shogun,
Tokugawa Iemitsu, the at
Edo Castle was expanded at the suggestion of his nanny,
Lady Kasuga, to ensure the birth of a male heir to the shogun's lineage, and became a vast shogun's harem with nearly 1,000 women working as maidservants. The women of
ōoku were highly hierarchical, with the of the shogun, who was of aristocratic lineage, ruling at the top, and the older women who had served her for a long time actually controlling
ōoku. The women who worked as maidservants in
ōoku were daughters of the , a high-ranking class of samurai, and they had servants from the and peasants who worked for them. Even low-ranking servants were treated as concubines of the shogun if they bore his children. One such example was Otama, the daughter of a grocer, who gave birth to the fifth shogun,
Tokugawa Ietsuna. The
ōoku was also used to ensure the Tokugawa shogun's rule over the country by arranging political marriages between the shogun's children and the children of daimyo in various regions. The
ōoku continued until 1868, when the Tokugawa shogunate was dissolved. The
Owari,
Kishū (Kii), and
Mito Tokugawa families, called the , founded by the children of Tokugawa Ieyasu, were the second most prestigious family after the shogun's family, and if the shogun's family failed to produce an heir, a male member of one of the three families was installed as shogun. For example, the 8th shogun,
Tokugawa Yoshimune, and the 14th shogun,
Tokugawa Iemochi, were originally heads of the Kishū Tokugawa family. In order to keep the shogun's lineage alive, the 8th Shogun, Yoshimune, had his children establish the Tayasu, Hitotsubashi, and Shimizu Tokugawa families, which were called the and were treated as the second most prestigious daimyo after the
Gosanke. Of these, the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family produced the 11th shogun,
Tokugawa Ienari. His son
Tokugawa Ieyoshi became the 12th shogun, and Ieyoshi's son
Tokugawa Iesada became the 13th shogun.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu became the 15th shogun after being adopted by the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family from the Mito Tokugawa family. The head of
Gosankyō had the privilege of entering the
ōoku, where men were forbidden. ==Timelines==