In pre-modern Japan, the shogun was Japan's supreme military leader, awarded the title by the emperor, and by tradition a descendant of the prestigious Minamoto clan. From 1603 through 1869, Japan was ruled by a series of shoguns known as the Tokugawa Shogunate, descended from Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Ieyasu moved the capitol to Edo (modern day Tokyo), and through a governing system of strict regulations, he initiated a period of peace, prosperity and cultural renaissance that would last for over 250 years.
