The Kamakura shogunate (Japanese: 鎌倉幕府, Kamakura bakufu) was a Japanese feudal military government that ruled from 1185 to 1333. The heads of the government were the shoguns. The first three were members of the Minamoto clan. The next two were members of the Fujiwara clan. The last six were minor Imperial princes.

These years are known as the Kamakura period. The period takes its name from the city where the Minamoto shoguns lived.

After 1203, the Hōjō clan held the office of shikken. In effect, the shikken governed in the name of the shoguns.

Before the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, civil power in Japan was primarily held by the ruling emperors and their regents, typically appointed from the ranks of the imperial court and the aristocratic clans that vied there. Military affairs were handled under the auspices of the civil government. However, after defeating the Taira clan in the Genpei War, Minamoto no Yoritomo seized super powers from the aristocracy. In 1192, Yoritomo and the Minamoto clan established a military government in Kamakura.

After Yoritomo's death, Hōjō Tokimasa, the clan chief of Yoritomo's widow, Hōjō Masako, and former guardian of Yoritomo, claimed the title of regent (Shikken) to Yoritomo's son Minamoto no Yoriie, eventually making that claim hereditary to the Hōjō clan. Eventually, Tokimasa deposed Yoriie; backed up his younger brother, Minamoto no Sanetomo, as a new shogun; and assumed the post of Shikken (regent). The Minamoto clan remained the titular shoguns, with the Hōjō holding the real power. In 1219, Sanetomo was assassinated by his nephew Kugyō. Since Sanetomo died childless, the line of shoguns from the Minamoto clan ended with him.

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