SHOGUN (

See also:

• JAPANESE

Japanese for " generalissimo ")  , in Japan, originally merely the style of a general in command in the field, a title which only gradually came into existence at the beginning of the 8th century, the mikado himself having previously been regarded as the only authority . The rise of a military class and of shoguns (generals) was a development coincident with the division of supremacy between the Minamoto and Taira clans (see JAPAN: History) . In 1192 the emperor Takahira made the Minamoto leader, Yoritomo, a Sei-i-tai-shogun (" barbarian-subjugating generalissimo ") or general-in-chief, and this office became stereotyped in the hands of successive great military leaders, till in 1603 Lyeyasu Tokugawa became shogun and established the Tokugawa dynasty in power . The shogunate from that time till 1867 exercised the de facto sovereignty in Japan, though in theory subordinate to the mikado . The revolution of 1867 swept away and abolished the shogunate and restored the mikado's supreme authority .