The new era dates from 1868. Up to the twelfth century Japan was ruled by the Mikado, who was believed to be directly descended from the gods who created the country. This ruler by “divine right” exercised his absolute power through the Kugé or court nobles, mostly connections of his own, who monopolised the chief offices, constituted the membership of the two great councils which arranged religious and secular affairs, and filled the principal posts in the eight executive departments of the Empire.

After the twelfth century, when the feudal system rose, the governing power gradually passed out of the hands of the Mikado and his nobles into those of the great feudal families, and in 1603 became concentrated in Iyéyasu, the head of the Tokugawa dynasty, successive members of which exercised it for two centuries and a half. All this time a shadowy Mikado nominally reigned in the old palace in Kiyôto, but power and splendour had passed to his chief vassal, who, under the title of Shôgun, actually ruled from the Castle of Yedo, and was usually strong enough to impose his will on his sovereign. It was this system of dual government which gave rise to the fiction of “spiritual” and “temporal” Emperors.

The daimiyô were feudal princes, who, having originally conquered their domains by the sword, exercised independent jurisdiction within their limits, but were bound to render certain acts of homage to the Shôgun, whose government was composed of those among them on whose loyalty he could rely.