[shoh-guh
n, -guhn] 
| the title applied to the chief military commanders from about the 8th century a.d. to the end of the 12th century, then applied to the hereditary officials who governed Japan, with the emperor as nominal ruler, until 1868, when the shogunate was terminated and the ruling power was returned to the emperor. |
| sho·gun (shō'gən) n. The hereditary commander of the Japanese army who until 1867 exercised absolute rule under the nominal leadership of the emperor. [Japanese shōgun, general, from Middle Chinese tsiangkun : tsiang, general + kun, army.] |
