The Kamakura shogunate

After defeating the Taira clan, Minamoto no Yoritomo set up a warrior government in the seaside town of Kamakura, far from the imperial court at Kyoto. It was the first shogunate, and warrior rule lasted in Japan until 1868. Its government repelled the Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281, and its rulers patronised Zen monasteries and the Great Buddha before the city fell in 1333.