I know the content of my posts varies a lot. So far we’ve had what is essentially an essay on Japanese culture and its effects on COVID-19, a long-winded explanation of the Japanese writing system, and a random list of things I have enjoyed being able to do during my time in quarantine.
My excuse being that I am testing the waters to find out what people want to see on this blog, this post is veering in yet another direction: Japanese history. Specifically, I am going to be writing about the Shogunate.
In Japanese history, the samurai is perhaps the one figure that retains the strongest grip on the world’s imagination. You all probably have an imagine in your head of what a ‘samurai’ is: a honourable, loyal warrior clad in expensive-looking armour and wielding a katana. Now, I could go on about the historical inaccuracies of this conception of the samurai, but a) There are plenty of articles about this already and b) to understand the true nature of the historical samurai, we first need to understand the Shogunate. The nature of this series is going to be focused on the political/societal structure side of things, so sorry if you wanted to read all about all the different types of weapons and battle strategies warriors used. I literally know nothing about this.
‘Shogun’, as you probably know, was the name given to the hereditary military leaders of Japan. The Shogunate, or ‘Bakufu’ refers to the military government as a whole. I say ‘military’ here, but as we will eventually see, this is not necessarily completely accurate nor sufficient to describe what the Shogunate really was. Actually, there have been three Shogunates in Japanese history spanning from the 12th century to the 19th century, and each had very different characteristics.
So without further ado, let’s start with the first Shogunate– the Kamkura Shogunate of 1185-1333–and the leadup to its establishment.
(Note: what follows is a vast oversimplification and some of it is based on background knowledge I have from lectures. If you want more a detailed or accurate account, I have put some useful references at the end.)
The Beginnings
Warriors in Japan did not begin as rulers. Up until the 12th century, what became ‘samurai’ were largely privately trained conscript fighters.
Up until this point, the Imperial Court had been in charge. Note that I say Imperial Court and not the emperor. At the point where we start to see centralised authority emerging and the formation of a proper ‘state’ (around the 7th century) the Emperor did indeed hold supreme authority. However, powerful families and retired emperors soon began to dominate things behind the scene.
Anyway, back to the warriors. The court had tried to create a conscript army but it didn’t go so well, so they started to rely on private warriors. In the Heian Period (794 – 1185), there was a lot of tricky court politics going on around. Nominally, all land belonged to the emperor, but during the Heian period, tax-exempt estates called shōen began to emerge. Power was getting more and more decentralised, and warriors were hired by nobles to protect their estates and make themselves look tough. Such warriors eventually began to exert influence over the estates. Middle-ranking nobles would sometimes take up arms themselves as a way of advancing their career.
The important thing to note is that at this point, power was still tightly bound up in the workings of the court. You became a warrior to get more power within the existing court system, not because you wanted to usurp it. Thought Japanese warriors were far too virtuous and dedicated to the art of the sword to get tied up in politics? Sorry. The samurai were literally born out of politics.
The Taira and Minamoto
Many eminent warriors came from the Taira and Minamoto families. These two families were originally descended from the imperial family itself, but as often happened when there were just too many princes to deal with, they were ‘trimmed away’ and given commoner status.
Now these two families didn’t like each other very much. The Minamoto resented the Taira for having grown to been such a dominant influence within the court. Then there was a succession dispute, with the Taira and Minamoto backing opposite sides. However, one of the Minamoto, called Yoshitomo, turned against his family and backed the Taira side. The Taira side won, but when this Yoshitomo dude realised that the leader of the Taira was getting all the rewards, he promptly decided to switch sides again and turned against the Taira. Unfortunately for him, the Taira won again.
Then, the leader of the Taira, Kiyomori, tried to put his own grandson on the throne, passing over the imperial prince. As you can imagine, the prince wasn’t very happy about this. There was a call to arms, which became a great excuse for the Minamoto to finally fight it out with the Taira. What started out as another ‘succession dispute’ really became a big contest between these two powerful warrior families. This is known as the Genpei War, and it lasted from 1180 to 1185.
Juicy Rewards
I’m not going to go into the specifics of the different battles that took place, but basically the new Minamoto leader, Yoritomo (Yoshitomo’s son) won the war and decided to make his own government. One of the secrets to his success was getting lots of warriors on his side by promising to dish out some juicy rewards.
We have already seen how Yoritomo’s father, Yoshitomo (yes, I know their names are all really similar, that’s not my fault) was pretty prone to switching sides based on what would benefit him the most. The point is that warriors weren’t actually the loyal, dutiful gentlemen they are cracked up to be. Yoritomo went up to warriors and was all like ‘so if you support me, not only will I make sure your existing positions on the estates are properly cemented in law, but I might just give you some of the lands I have forcibly taken from my enemies.’
And this is exactly what he did. After creating his new government – the Kamakura Shogunate – he appointed many of his followers as Jitō, or military land stewards on the shōen estates. Before, these followers would have been at the mercy of the landowning nobility and the central government who were easily able to appoint and remove them from their positions. The Jitō however, were appointed by the Shogunate and couldn’t be fired by the estate authorities.
So once again, we see how warriors were basically just power-hungry politicians.
Control and the Court
You might be wondering what on earth had happened to the court amongst all of this. The truth is that the court was still very much alive and kicking. There is a myth that the Kamakura Shogunate ‘replaced’ the court authority and was now the ‘real’ source of power, but this simply isn’t true. In fact, one of the main roles of the Kamkura Shogunate was to work alongside the court system to make sure the warriors were under control. The Shogunate was officially recognised by the court and actually made efforts to stop warriors from overstepping their authority. Also, the reason it’s called the Kamakura Shogunate is because it was established in Kamakura i.e. not Kyoto where the court was based (see the picture below to get an idea how how far away they are from each other). On a geographical level, this shows that the Yoritomo wasn’t trying to set up the Shogunate as a successor or equivalent to the court, but as something different — a government for warrior affairs and warrior affairs only.
For instance, the Kamakura Shogunate established a judicial system to mediate between the frequent disputes between the civil estate authorities and the newly appointed Jitō. And the rulings would often go against the Jitō. The Kamakura also developed law codes to place boundaries on the actions of warriors. These did not reach into civil matters, which were left to the court, but were principally designed to regulate warrior behaviour.
So ultimately what was keeping the samurai from going off the rails was not bonds of loyalty and trust, but a bunch of extra laws and, yes, even more politics. And they didn’t even try to race in wielding their katanas and try to get rid of the court. Reality is boring, huh?
Warrior Culture
The last thing that it is important to note is that the Kamkura saw the beginnings of a warrior culture, in which warriors were seen as their own subsection of society with their own customs and ideals. As I said before, up until this point the role of the warriors was tied up in the court system and there wasn’t really a ‘class’ of warriors as such. During the Kamakura period, we can see some signs of a warrior culture and identity, although it did not become fully developed until later on.
For instance, the famous epic tale of the Genpei War — the Heike Monogatari — was in its early stages of development in this era. It is a semi-historical account of the events which actually occurred, and was originally recounted through the stories told by travelling monks. Its final version had heavy emphasis on the concepts of loyalty and honour. Many of the warriors perform heroic, sometimes almost superhuman deeds, and put their own lives at stake or commit suicide rather than risk the loss of face. The lord-vassal relationship is also idealised, with bonds of loyalty being represented as important. As you have seen, in reality warriors would have just switched sides whenever they felt like it. It demonstrates how the values of the time were projected back into history. Warriors were increasingly constrained, and the idea of ‘loyalty’ (particularly to the Kamakura Shogunate) would have been becoming more important.
Warriors also started taking a liking to Zen Buddhism, which later became patronised by the Shogunate as an important institution of warrior culture. More about that in a later post. Anyway, idealised stories of brave samurai risking their lives for their lords are just that: idealised. The principle that samurai should behave morally in battle was pretty much invented after all the dirty fighting took place.
What now?
I have said that the Kamakura Shogunate existed in parallel to the court, but over time it started becoming more powerful. We will see what the result of this is, but for now let’s summarize the main features of the Kamakura Shogunate.
- Born out of a complex mixture of factors, including conflict within the court, the privatisation of landholdings and a desire by warriors to have their power officially recognised
- Was concerned with controlling warriors and did not meddle in civil affairs
- Saw the beginnings of a warrior class/identity
And what happened after that? Hint: even more treachery, even more switching sides and even more politics.
Stay tuned for part 2.
References:
- Japan Emerging. Edited by Karl Friday. New York: Routledge, 2018.
- The Cambridge History of Japan. Edited by Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. (Published online 2008)
- Shinoda, Minoru. The founding of the Kamakura shogunate, 1180-1185: with selected translations from the Azuma Kagami. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.
Accidentally in Japan 