The Kamakura bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) was the first government to enforce the bukeho in the form of statutory law, the Goseibai-shikimoku (code of conduct for samurai), which was inherited by the Kenmu Code enforced by Muromachi bakufu, the bunkokuho (the law individual sengoku-daimyo enforced in their own domain) enforced by daimyo (Japanese territorial lord) during the Sengoku Period, and the Buke Shohatto (code for the warrior households) as well as the hanpo (code for regional domains) enforced during the time of the Edo bakufu; the bukeho thus became the prototype of codes for the military government to control the nation and for the regional administrations to maintain the feudal system and the regional order within their domains.
鎌倉幕府において初めての成文法形式の武家法である御成敗式目が定められ、以後室町幕府の建武式目、戦国大名の分国法、江戸幕府の武家諸法度及び諸藩の藩法に継承され、武家政権における日本全国の支配及び地方政権における領国内の封建体制と地域秩序の維持の基本となった。