During the long period of clan wars in Japan spanning from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, most of the political power was held by the daimyos or feudal warlords. During the latest feudal period of Japan, from the seventeenth to the mid nineteenth century, the ultimate political power was held by the shogun, a chancellor of sorts, all descendants of the first shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu who had managed to pacify Japan and bring all the daimyos and samurai under his control in the early 1600s. The emperor only held a ceremonial religious role throughout the feudal period of Japan.
