Yoritomo’s establishment, in 1185, of a new…
May 1185 CE
Yoritomo’s establishment, in 1185, of a new government at his family home in Kamakura, independent from the emperor and his Heian bureaucracy, inaugurates Japan’s Kamakura period, which marks the transition to land-based economies and a concentration of advanced military technologies in the hands of a specialized fighting class.
Lords require the loyal services of vassals, who are rewarded with fiefs of their own.
The fief holders exercise local military rule.
Yoritomo calls his government a bakufu (tent government), but because he is given the ancient high military title Seii Tai-shōgun by the Emperor, the government is often referred to in Western literature as the shogunate.
Yoritomo follows the Fujiwara form of house government and has an administrative board (Mandokoro), a board of retainers (Samurai-dokoro), and a board of inquiry (Monchūjo).