How Japan Went From High Culture to a Samurai Culture

The five-year, devastating civil strife of the Genpei War (1180-1185) ended the Heian Period and ushered in the Kamakura Shogunate (1185-1333), a military dictatorship. For its 150 years, it featured two Japanese governments-the imperial court of a largely ceremonial and powerless emperor in Kyoto and the center of real power in the hands of the shogun in the city of Kamakura.