“Shogunate” is the western term for the government of military regents (Japanese shōgun) that dominated Japan from 1192 to 1867. Japanese historians use the term bakufu (literally “tent government,” i.e. government in the field), using it to refer to the shogun himself, his palace, and the system of government established by him and his warrior nobility (Samurai). Bakufu was generally recognized as a specifically Japanese form of military governmen…