Shogun

The shogun was the head of the national military in feudal Japan. He was usually the most powerful of the daimyos, the regional military and political leaders. Shoguns were declared by the emperor of Japan, who was the official head of state. However, the shogun wielded more power and influence. The shogunate was disbanded in 1867.

Introduction

Prior to 300 B.C.E., the Japanese were primarily hunters and gatherers. During the next thousand years, a time now called the Yayoi period, Japanese society developed complex agricultural practices and social classes. Sections of Japan began to unite under powerful military leaders, and the nation's first monarchs took the throne.

By 400 C.E., much of mainland Japan had been united as Yamato. Ruled by an empire, Yamato stretched from modern Kyushu to the Kinai Plain. While Yamato was ruled by an emperor, various clans vied for political power within the empire. While the Soka clan originally dominated the empire's political landscape, other clans quickly worked to take its place. The clans fought bitterly; their conflicts fueled by constant rivalries. A feudal system of regional control, similar to that of medieval Europe, evolved out of the chaos. As the central government found itself unable to control the clans and their warriors, the emperor's control over Japan weakened.

Japan's clans were headed by powerful leaders called daimyo. These military lords formed the aristocracy of feudal Japan. Most lived in fortified estates and castles. Each daimyo demanded the loyalty of a number of samurai, elite warriors trained from childhood to enforce their daimyo's will. While some samurai became politically powerful, they swore complete loyalty to their daimyo. They followed rigidly enforced social and moral codes of conduct, including total obedience to their superiors.

Overview

To re-establish order, the emperor of Japan named Minamoto Yoritomo shogun in 1192. In addition to maintaining Japan's military, the newly created office of shogun was tasked with uniting the nation's many rival daimyos. He established the Kamakura Bakfu, a cabinet of powerful, specialized officers, to assist him in this pursuit.

Though the emperor still officially ruled Japan, the shogun commanded the loyalty of the entirety of Japan's military. For this reason, few emperors dared to cross their shoguns. Yorimoto's Kamakura Bakfu simplified and streamlined many governmental processes, creating a vastly more efficient bureaucracy than the previous governmental structure. Following Yoritomo's death, growing tensions between the emperor's officials and the Kamakura Bakfu resulted in civil war. The Kamakura Bakfu defeated the emperor's army and officially stripped most political power from the office of the emperor. From that point forward, whoever held that position ruled only as a figure head and carried out religious rituals specific to the office. Power over the mundane aspects of the empire belonged to the shogun and the Kamakura Bakfu. To avoid civil war over the appointment of new shoguns, the office was eventually declared to be hereditary.

After the shogunate became hereditary, the shoguns ruled Japan for hundreds of years. The title occasionally changed clans, usually when a particularly powerful daimyo was able to pressure the emperor into granting him the title instead of the previous shogun's heir. The last set of shoguns, the Tokugawa clan, controlled Japan from 1603 to 1868. This era, called the Edo period, was marked by sweeping changes to Japan's political landscape.

Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun, relocated his capital to Edo, which would become the modern city of Tokyo. He redistributed the land controlled by the daimyos in a way that would discourage local conflicts and clan rivalries. Tokugawa also declared that all daimyos spend every other year in Edo. Living abroad every other year drained the finances of the daimyos and kept them away from their home territories for extended periods of time. This made it more difficult for any one daimyo to amass enough power, wealth, or influence to challenge the Tokugawa shogunate.

The Tokugawa shogunate also encouraged foreign trade. The shogunate established trading relationships with England, China, and the Netherlands. However, this prosperous period was short-lived. Fearing outside influence, the shogunate banned foreign travel and most foreign trade in 1633.

The Tokugawa isolationist policy held strong for more than one hundred years. It allowed Japan's own arts and culture to develop uniquely and independently throughout the second half of the Edo period. Several Western nations attempted to open a trading relationship with Japan but most were rebuffed.

This changed in 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry of the US Navy forced Japan to open its ports to Western merchants. Commodore Perry sailed two military steamers, two sailing vessels, and a frigate into Tokyo Harbor and demanded that the Japanese sign a treaty allowing American merchants to trade at their ports. When this proved successful, Russia, England, and several other European nations used the same tactic to force their own treaties.

Naval incursions by European powers exposed the Japanese to the technological advantages of Western civilization. Additionally, the newly-opened ports exposed the Japanese people to exotic Western goods. The Tokugawa shogunate could not quell the waves of foreigners and foreign trade entering the country, and other samurai and daimyos began pushing for a change in leadership. However, the people had become resentful of the military's strict rule. In the face of growing tension among the daimyo and civil dissent, the last Tokugawa shogun stepped down in 1867. He abolished the office, formally restoring power to Emperor Meiji.

Emperor Meiji ushered in the Meiji Restoration. Meiji transferred political power to a small group of nobles and former samurai. These leaders navigated Japan's integration into the Western world and its transition into a democratic state.

Popular Culture

Feudal Japan later became the focus of countless works of film and literature, both within Japan and throughout the world at large. In Japan, period films set prior to the Meiji Restoration became so popular that an entire genre, jidaigeki, developed around the setting. Notable among these is Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), a film many experts consider to be one of the most influential of all time. Samurai Champloo, a 2004 Japanese anime series set in a fictionalized Edo period, blended the history of the era with modern hip-hop music to both critical and commercial success. James Clavell’s novel Shōgun (1975) is loosely inspired by Tokugawa Ieyasu’s rise to power and went on to become one of the bestselling books of all time. The novel was adapted for screen several times, including a 1980 miniseries and a 2024 miniseries that both received acclaim from critics.

Bibliography

Bowen, James. "Japan Under the Shoguns 1185-1853." Pacific War Historical Society, 14 May 2010, pacificwar.org.au/foundationJapmilaggro/Shogunate.html. Accessed 5 Oct. 2016.

"Commodore Perry and Japan (1853-1854)." Columbia University, 2009, afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan‗1750‗perry.htm. Accessed 5 Oct. 2016.

Sato, Yasuko. "The Essentials: Seven Samurai." Education About Asia, Association for Asian Studies, Fall 2021, www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/the-essentials-seven-samurai/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Solly, Meilan. "The Real History behind FX's 'Shogun.'" Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Feb. 2024, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-fxs-shogun-180983848/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

"Tokugawa Period and Meiji Restoration." History.com, 2016, history.com/topics/meiji-restoration. Accessed 5 Oct. 2016.