In Feudal Japan, the political power lay with the shoguns, who were similar to military dictators. The emperor was a figurehead who had no rule power. The samurai were the warriors of the shoguns, similar to European knights. The merchants were the lowest class, because the Japanese saw the occupation of buying and selling as distasteful.

Nobunaga (1534-1582) was very interested in European culture and even wore European clothes. He collected western artwork and also encouraged trade with Siam, Indonesia, and the Philippines; countries outside the usual Japanese region of Northeast China and Korea. Moreover, even though the goal of Japanese unification had been apparent for some time, Nobunaga was the first daimyo to make tangible efforts at unification as he unified several provinces in his immediate region and opened trade avenues with the outside world.

The Sengoku period lasted for nearly 150 years, ending with the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603.

A Bugyo was an appointed position, held by Samurais. They were responsible for the general running of cities and regions as well as finance and development. They reported directly to the Shogun. Originally the term only applied to officials who were appointed with a designated task to complete. However, the position was formalized during the Edo period (1603-1868) until eventually there were 36 Bugyo positions in the Japanese bureaucracy.

An extremely violent and unstable period in the history of Feudal Japan, the Sengoku Period began with the end of the Onin War in 1467, and ended in 1603 when the Tokugawa Shogunate consolidated power.

Bushidō differed in that the samurai were not tied to land which they protected as a European knight might do, but were more focused on the protection of their lord, the daimyo. Daimyo were subordinate to the Shogun. Ronin were samurai who had failed to commit seppuku, ritual suicide, and were therefore not serving a lord.