shoguns

Cultural  

1. Japanese military leaders who ruled the country from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries. There was still an emperor in Japan under the shoguns, but he was reduced to a mere figurehead.

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Example Sentences

It was worn by the Tokugawa shoguns and declared a national treasure of Japan in 1939.

From The Guardian • May 18, 2018

Fans get a sneak peak at a training session for hosts who appear to be shoguns.

From Time • Dec. 5, 2016

For her, World War II must seem as remote as the time of the shoguns.

From National Geographic • Aug. 7, 2015

The parallel Kano school, which looked to China, and specifically monochromatic brush painting, for its sources, was favored by the neo-Confucian shoguns.

From New York Times • Jan. 30, 2014

From that time princes and nobles who saw no prospect of secular distinction began to take the tonsure, and this retirement to the cloister was assiduously encouraged by the Muromachi shoguns.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by Brinkley, F. (Frank)