Samurai, shoguns, and feudal Japan.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
In yabusame, archers shoot at targets while doing what?
Yabusame riders balance with the lower body so both hands remain free to handle the bow and arrow.
Which clan exercised real power through regents during much of the Kamakura shogunate?
The Hojo regents used the title shikken while later shoguns often served as nominal leaders.
Early Kamakura samurai women could inherit which estate office?
A 1215 shogunal order confirmed a widow as jitō and kept the estate's taxes and services due as before.
In feudal Japan, what did the label "rōnin" mean?
A lord's death or downfall could turn retainers into rōnin and cut off the stipends tied to their service.
Which Tokugawa succeeded Ieyasu as shogun in 1605?
Hidetada became the second shogun in a Tokugawa line that held the office until 1867.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 1588 Sword Hunt ordered which group to surrender weapons?
Disarming farmers reduced the threat of uprisings and helped reserve armed force for the warrior elite.
In Sengoku armies, ashigaru most commonly fought in which role?
Ashigaru means "light feet," a fitting name for infantry who made Sengoku armies larger and more mobile.
Which class rose as military landowners gained power in late Heian Japan?
Political power shifted away from Kyoto's nobility and toward armed families in the provinces.
Where did Minamoto no Yoritomo establish Japan's first lasting warrior government?
Yoritomo governed from Kamakura through military governors and estate stewards posted across Japan.
At Sekigahara in 1600, which coalition did Tokugawa Ieyasu lead?
Ieyasu's victory over Ishida Mitsunari's Western Army gave him control before his 1603 appointment as shogun.