However, it was actually 1192 that Yoritomo Yoshitsune was appointed as the first shogun, which some people would class as the official beginning of the Kamakura period. The Kamakura period (jidai) is the first major period in feudal Japan and it refers to the period that started in 1185, when Minamoto defeated the Tiara Clan in the Gempi War.

These feudal Japan periods, very much military based, had different types of leadership and structures. The feudal time of Japanese history is made up of three major periods including Kamakura period, Muromachi period and Azuchi-Momoyama period.