Shoguns
For many years different clans, or family groups, fought for
power in Japan. One of these clans was the Genji. In the 1100s their
leader, Yoritomo, and his army beat other clans. He was the most
powerful man in Japan and he set up a military government in the
town of Kamakura. For 700 years the emperors’court stayed in Kyoto
but the military leaders, or shoguns, ruled the country from their
castles.
