a hereditary commander-in-chief in feudal Japan. Because of the military power concentrated in his hands and the consequent weakness of the nominal head of statea state is an independent political entity with a centralized government and set geographical boundaries where control is exercised by police or military; a state claims the right to defend itself from both internal and external threats by use of force; a state may have many villages and cities and/or millions or billions of people as in China and India (the mikado or emperor), the shogun was generally the real ruler of the country until feudalisma system of political organization in Europe from the ninth through the 15th centuries, based on  economical related services of tenants, which benefitted their landlords; the tenants were bound by court and wardship was abolished in 1867.