For 250 years the shoguns ruled a feudal state from which virtually all foreign influence - religious, technological and artistic - was banned on pain of death.

Will it now become a lawless, feudal state once more?

Each feudal state was independent and had its own tax and legal systems along with unique currency.

This feudal state became a union of relatively independent rulers who developed their own territories.

The various feudal states were in a state of almost continual war.