Shogunate: Did you mean...?

The Heian Period of Japanese history covers 794 to 1185 CE and saw a great flourishing in Japanese culture from literature to paintings. Government and its administration came to be dominated by the Fujiwara clan who eventually were challenged...

The Genpei War (1180-1185 CE), also known as the Taira-Minamoto War, was a conflict in Japan principally between two rival clans: the Minamoto and Taira, for control of the imperial throne. The civil war was punctuated by a typhoon, earthquake...

The Azuchi-Momoyama Period (Azuchi-Momoyama Jidai, aka Shokuho Period, 1568/73 - 1600 CE) was a brief but significant period of medieval Japan's history which saw the country unified after centuries of a weak central government and petty...

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) was a Japanese military leader who reunified Japan at the beginning of the 17th century after a long period of civil war, known as the Warring States or Sengoku period. He created a new government controlled by...

The “Ancient Japan” initiative at Ancient History Encyclopedia arose as there is a dearth of open access and digitally curated information concerning early Japanese history available online and in English. East and Southeast Asia are arguably...

The Ariake Sea and Yushima at Hara Castle, photograph by Matthew Allison, 4 October 2025. Hara Castle, Minamishimabara, sits on the coastline of the Ariake Sea, as photographed above. It was along this shoreline that the rebels of the Shimabara...

Remains of the dry moat at Hara Castle, photograph by Matthew Allison, 4 October 2025. A dry moat that protected the inner ward of Hara Castle, Minamishimabara. Although the castle itself is now gone, this dry moat, which has widened due...

Ancient Japan has made unique contributions to world culture which include the Shinto religion and its architecture, distinctive art objects such as haniwa figurines, the oldest pottery vessels in the world, the largest wooden buildings anywhere...

The Meiji Restoration was a political event that took place in Japan in 1868. In it, the Tokugawa family, a warrior clan that had ruled Japan for more than 260 years, was overthrown by a group of political activists who proclaimed that their...

Himeji Castle, located in the town of Himeji in the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan, was built on a natural hilltop between 1581 and 1609 CE. The complex is composed of a maze-like arrangement of fortified buildings, walls, and gates, with a six-storey...