Editing Shogun (section)

===Etymology===
[[File:Shogun-Hearing-in-Fukiage-by-Toyohara-Chikanobu-1889.png|thumb|The shogun hearing a lawsuit at the [[Tokyo Imperial Palace#Fukiage Garden|Fukiage]] of [[Edo Castle]], by [[Toyohara Chikanobu]]]]
From the 1800s, the shogunate's administration was known as the {{nihongo|''bakufu''|幕府}}, literally meaning ''"government from the {{ill|Front curtain|ja|幕|WD=|lt=curtain}}''".<ref name="hiroshi100722"/><ref name="asahi030722"/> In this context, "curtain" is a synecdoche for a type of semi-open tent called a ''maku'', a temporary battlefield headquarters from which a samurai general would direct his forces, and whose sides would be decorated with his [[Mon (emblem)|mon]]. The application of the term ''bakufu'' to the shogunate government was therefore heavy with symbolism, connoting both the explicitly military character of the shogunal regime and its (at least theoretically) ephemeral nature.<ref name="Maku">Turnbull, 2006a:207.</ref>

The term {{Nihongo||幕府|bakufu|extra="tent government"}} originally meant the dwelling and household of a shogun, but in time, became a [[metonym]] for the system of government dominated by a feudal [[military]] [[monarchy]], exercised in the name of the shogun or by the shogun himself.<ref>Grossberg, Kenneth A. (1976). "From Feudal Chieftain to Secular Monarch. The Development of Shogunal Power in Early Muromachi Japan". Monumenta Nipponica. 31 (1): 34. doi:10.2307/2384184. ISSN 0027-0741</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/shogunate | title=Shogunate &#124; History & Facts &#124; Britannica | date=15 September 2023 }}</ref> 

The term ''bakufu'' was not officially used at the time of the shogunate; the Tokugawa shogunate was called {{nihongo|''kōgi''|公儀}}.
It was not until the [[Bakumatsu era]] in the 1800s that the term ''bakufu'' began to be actively used in its current meaning of "shogunate".
The late [[Mito school]] of the time preferred the term ''bakufu'' because they wanted to emphasize that Japan was an emperor-centered country, and that the shogunate was merely the administration of the shogun appointed by the emperor. The modern use of the term was then established when history textbooks at [[Imperial Universities]] in the 1890s defined that only the three regimes of [[Kamakura shogunate|Kamakura]], [[Ashikaga shogunate|Ashikaga]], and Tokugawa were ''bakufu'' and that the appointment of a shogun was essential for the establishment of the ''bakufu''.<ref name="hiroshi100722">{{cite web|url=https://chinajapan.org/articles/10.2/10.2watanabe32-42.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710053756/https://chinajapan.org/articles/10.2/10.2watanabe32-42.pdf|author=Hiroshi Watanabe|title=About Some Japanese Historical Terms |publisher=[[University of Tokyo]]|archive-date=10 July 2022|access-date=9 March 2025}}</ref><ref name="asahi030722">{{cite web|url=https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASQ6X6QBQQ6GULZU00H.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225183939/https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASQ6X6QBQQ6GULZU00H.html|script-title=ja:「いい国」つくるのは誰？　平家が鎌倉幕府に先駆けた政治のしくみ|language=ja|publisher=[[Asahi Shimbun]]|date=3 July 2022|archive-date=25 December 2022|access-date=9 March 2025}}</ref>