ABSTRACT
IT has been already stated that Minamoto Yoritomo, at the time of the downfall of his family, had taken up his residence at Kamakura in the eastern province of Sagami, and thence conducted the military enterprises of his family. The Samurai-dokoro, the officials appointed by Yoritomo for military affairs, had their seat there. When the whole power came into the hands of the Minamoto, Kamakura became the real seat of government. Yoritomo appointed Kumonjo or Mandokoro, the actual government officials, with Monjusho to be officers of justice. The councils appointed by Yoritomo at Kamakura possessed in reality the power of the government The old Dajōkan and the ministers and councils working under him, remained in the imperial capital Kiōtō, but their offices were merely titular. They no longer possessed real practical power. In 1192 Go-Toba Tennō sent an embassy to Yoritomo which appointed him Shogun, i.e. commander-in-chief. Thence comes the term, Shōgunate of Kamakura. As Shōgun, Yoritomo was the sole head of the government He levied taxes, and was especially careful to collect those due for the army, and paid his soldiers. He rewarded those who had been loyal to him with large grants of land. He was respectful to the Emperor and formally recognised him as the actual ruler. In reality the sovereign did not possess the slightest power in the country, and exercised no influence on Yoritomo’s government
The foundation of the Shōgunate was not a mere chance or passing event in the historical development of Japan nor must it be regarded merely as the act of any one great man like Yoritomo. It was the result of a long evolution which marks the essential character of the Japanese Empire, the evolution of the feudal system which had its beginnings in the time of the Fujiwara. Yoritomo owed the power to acquire so independent a position with regard to the Emperor and the government of the state entirely to the loyalty of his vassals who, during the period of persecution, had remained faithful to him, and the powerful position of great families like the Taira and Minamoto was only a circumstance in the evolution of the feudal system. In the course of the last centuries new powers had arisen. The power of the Emperor and of the imperial officials was wholly abolished by the power of the feudal lords, the Daimiōs, who relied on the support of their vassals, the Samurai, whom we may already call knights. The actual reins of government were held by the most powerful of the feudal lords, the Shōgun.
