The 3 Japanese Shogunates

A while ago a friend asked me about the Japanese Shoguns. He wanted to know if the same shogun clan ruled all of Japan. I told him that Japan had 3 different Shogunates that ruled Japan. They were the Kamakura Shoguns (1185-1333 CE), Ashikage Shoguns (1338-1573 CE) and the Tokugawa Shoguns (1600-1868 CE).

The Kamakura Shoguns came from 3 different families. They were the Minamoto and Fujiwara clans. The last 6 shoguns were imperial princes. This group of shoguns take their name from the city that they made their capital. That was the City of Kamakura. The one fun fact about this shogunate is the fact that the real power was in the powerful regents. They all came from the same family, The Hojo Clan. The first picture is of the symbol of the Kamakura Shogunate and the next picture is of the first Kamakura Shogun (Minamoto no Yoritomo).

The Ashikage Shoguns all came from the same clan... The Ashikage Clan. There were 15 total shoguns that came from this family. Their capital was Hein-kyo or Kyoto. The shogunate fell when Oda Nobunaga installed a puppet shogun and then removed the said shogun. This picture is of the symbol of the Ashikage clan.

The Last Shogunate was the Tokugawa Shoguns and ruled by the powerful Tokugawa clan. A total of 15 Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan until the emperor took back control of the country and the arrival of the Western powers. The one fun fact about this clan is that they are still around today and still trying to improve Japan for the better. The first picture is the symbol of the Tokugawa clan the last is of an old map of Tokugawa Japan.

So... to answer my friends question, there were several families or clans that have ruled Japan through their shoguns. But, the shogun system fell out of use when the Emperor took back control of the country in 1868 CE.