, officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868.Spafford, D. "Emperor and Shogun, Pope and King: The Development of Japan's Warrior Aristocracy." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Vol. 88, No. 1/4, (2014), pp. 10–19. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamakura period and Sengoku period when the shoguns themselves were figureheads, with real power in the hands of the of the Hōjō clan and 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 and , the highest offices of the aristocratic class. As such, they ran their governments as its de facto rulers.
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.
While 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.
The shogun's officials were collectively referred to as the ('tent-government'). They were the ones who carried out the actual duties of administration, while the imperial court retained only nominal authority.Beasley, William G. (1955). Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–1868, p. 321. 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 ( ), persisted for nearly 700 years, ending when Tokugawa Yoshinobu relinquished the office to Emperor Meiji in 1867 as part of the Meiji Restoration. This term bakufu only began to be actively used in the 1800s to emphasize that the emperor was the legitimate ruler of the country. During the Tokugawa shogunate the shogunate was officially called .
Etymology
The term is the abbreviation of the historical title sei-i taishōgun (): 征 (sei, せい) means "conquer" or "subjugate", and 夷 (i, い) means "barbarian" or "savage" i.e. the Emishi etc. outside imperial influence; 大 (dai, だい) means "great"; (shō, しょう) means "commander", and 軍 (gun, ぐん) means "army". Thus, a literal translation of sei-i taishōgun would be 'Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians'. The term originally referred to the general who commanded the army sent to fight the tribes of northern Japan, but after the twelfth century, the term was used to designate the leader of the samurai.Turnbull, 2006a:21 & 22. The term is often translated generalissimo and is also used for such military leaders of foreign nations by the Japanese.
Though now predominantly refers to the historical position sei-i taishōgun () in Japanese, the term is generically used for the rank of general in other East Asian languages, such as Chinese (), in which it is secondarily used for the historical Japanese position.
In the western world, he was referred to as Tycoon. It was not until later that the proper term of Sei-i-tai or sei-i taishōgun was used.
Titles Historically, similar terms to sei-i taishōgun were used with varying degrees of responsibility, although none of them had equal or more importance than sei-i taishōgun. Some of them were:
Friday, 2007:108. Hall, 1991:241. Adolphson, 2007:341.
History
Shoguns in the history of Japan S# Name Birth/Death Government First shogunsThere is no consensus among the various sources on this list, since some authors consider Tajihi no Agatamori to be the original shogun, whereas others regard Ōtomo no Otomaro or even Sakanoue no Tamuramaro as being the first, and still others avoid the problem entirely by starting from the first Kamakura shogun only. Tajihi no Agatamori 668–737Cranston, 1998:361. 720 Ōtomo no Yakamochi 718?–785Cranston, 1998:427. 784–785Sansom, 1931:201. Ki no Kosami in the year 789Takekoshi, 2004:96. Ki no Kosami 733–797 789 Ōtomo no Otomaro 731–809Caiger, 1997:339. 794Shively, 1999:xviii. Sakanoue no Tamuramaro 758–811De Bary et al., 2001:266. 797–811? Fun'ya no Watamaro 765–823Shively et al., 1999:30. 813 Fujiwara no Tadabumi 873–947Adolphson et al, 2007:334. 940 Minamoto no Yoshinaka 1154–1184Turnbull, 2005:16. 1184 Kamakura ShogunateDeal, 2007:100–101. 1 Minamoto no Yoritomo 1147–1199 1192–1199 2 Minamoto no Yoriie 1182–1204 1202–1203 3 Minamoto no Sanetomo 1192–1219 1203–1219 4 Kujō Yoritsune 1218–1256 1226–1244 5 Kujō Yoritsugu 1239–1256 1244–1252 6Prince Munetaka 1242–1274 1252–1266 7Prince Koreyasu 1264–1326 1266–1289 8Prince Hisaaki 1276–1328 1289–1308 9Prince Morikuni 1301–1333 1308–1333 Kenmu RestorationPrince Moriyoshi 1308–1335Perkins, 1998b:292. He was named shogun by his father Emperor Go-Daigo in 1333Varley, 1994:243. 1333–1335Prince Nariyoshi 1326–1344?Perkins, 1998b:295. 1334–1338 Ashikaga Shogunate 1 Ashikaga Takauji 1305–1358 1338–1358 2 Ashikaga Yoshiakira 1330–1367 1358–1367 3 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu 1358–1408 1368–1394 4 Ashikaga Yoshimochi 1386–1428 1394–1423 / 1425–1429 5 Ashikaga Yoshikazu 1407–1425 1423–1425 6 Ashikaga Yoshinori 1394–1441 1429–1441 7 Ashikaga Yoshikatsu 1434–1443 1442–1443 8 Ashikaga Yoshimasa 1436–1490 1449–1473 9 Ashikaga Yoshihisa 1465–1489 1473–1489 10 Ashikaga Yoshitane 1466–1523 1490–1493 11 Ashikaga Yoshizumi 1480–1511 1494–1508 10 Ashikaga Yoshitane1466–1523 1508–1521 12 Ashikaga Yoshiharu 1511–1550 1521–1546 13 Ashikaga Yoshiteru 1536–1565 1546–1565 14 Ashikaga Yoshihide 1538–1568 1568 15 Ashikaga Yoshiaki 1537–1597 1568–1573 Tokugawa Shogunate 1 Tokugawa Ieyasu 1542–1616 1603–1605 2 Tokugawa Hidetada 1579–1632Murdoch, 1996:791. 1605–1623 3 Tokugawa Iemitsu 1604–1651 1623–1651 4 Tokugawa Ietsuna 1641–1680 1651–1680 5 Tokugawa Tsunayoshi 1646–1709 1680–1709 6 Tokugawa Ienobu 1662–1712 1709–1712 7 Tokugawa Ietsugu 1709–1716 1713–1716 8 Tokugawa Yoshimune 1684–1751 1716–1745 9 Tokugawa Ieshige 1711–1761 1745–1760 10 Tokugawa Ieharu 1737–1786 1760–1786 11 Tokugawa Ienari 1773–1841 1787–1837 12 Tokugawa Ieyoshi 1793–1853 1837–1853 13 Tokugawa Iesada 1824–1858 1853–1858 14 Tokugawa Iemochi 1846–1866 1858–1866 15 Tokugawa Yoshinobu 1837–1913 1867–1868Deal, 2007:48.
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")The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary, 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
Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758–811) was a Japanese general who fought against the Emishi tribes of northern Japan (settled in the territory that today integrates the provinces of Mutsu and Dewa). Tamarumaro was the first general to bend these tribes, integrating their territory to that of the Yamato State. For his military feats he was named sei-i taishōgun and probably because he was the first to win the victory against the northern tribes he is generally recognized as the first shogun in history.Andressen & Osborne, 2002:48.Ramirez-faria, 283. (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.
The first attempt to establish a warrior class government
Taira no Masakado, who rose to prominence in the early 10th century, was the first of the local warrior class to revolt against the imperial court. 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
During the reigns of Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Toba, the Taira clan became , or overseers of various regions, and accumulated wealth by taking samurai from various regions as their retainers. In the struggle to succeed Emperor Toba, former Emperor Sutoku and Emperor Go-Shirakawa, each with his samurai class on his side, fought the Hōgen rebellion, which was won by Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who had Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoshitomo on his side. Later, Taira no Kiyomori defeated Minamoto no Yoshitomo in the Heiji rebellion and became the first samurai-born aristocratic class, eventually becoming , the highest position of the aristocratic class, and the Taira clan monopolized important positions at the imperial court and wielded power. The seizure of political power by Taira no Kiyomori was the first instance of the warrior class leading politics for the next 700 years.
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.