The word "Shogun" merely means "General"; the full title of
the people whom we call "Shogun" is "Sei-i-Tai Shogun," which means
"Barbarian-subduing great General"; the barbarians in question being the
Ainus, the Japanese aborigines. The first to hold this office in the
form which it had at most times until the Restoration was Minamoto
Yoritomo, on whom the title was conferred by the Mikado in 1192. But
before long the Shogun became nearly as much of a figure-head as the
Mikado. Custom confined the Shogunate to the Minamoto family, and the
actual power was wielded by Regents in the name of the Shogun. This
lasted until near the end of the sixteenth century, when it happened
that Iyeyasu, the supreme military commander of his day, belonged to the
Minamoto family, and was therefore able to assume the office of Shogun
himself. He and his descendants held the office until it was abolished
at the Restoration. The Restoration, however, did not put an end to the
practice of a real Government behind the nominal one. The Prime Minister
and his Cabinet are presented to the world as the Japanese Government,
but the real Government is the Genro, or Elder Statesmen, and their
successors, of whom I shall have more to say in the next chapter.
What the Japanese made of Buddhism reminds one in many ways of what the
Teutonic nations made of Christianity. Buddhism and Christianity,
originally, were very similar in spirit.
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