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Noun. 1. shogunate-a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.). dictatorship, monocracy, one-man rule, Stalinism, totalitarianism, tyranny, authoritarianism, Caesarism, despotism, absolutism.
In 1192, a military leader called Minamoto Yoritomo had the Emperor appoint him shogun; he set up his own capital in Kamakura, far to the east of the Emperor's capital in Kyoto, near present-day Tokyo. For almost 700 years after that, Japan was ruled mainly by a succession of shoguns, whose titles were usually passed on from father to son. Sometimes the shogun's family would become weak, and a rebel leader would seize power from them, after which he would be named shogun and would start a new ruling family. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the shogunate in 1603 in present-day Tokyo.