What was Japan like before the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate? -

I know that Japan was mainly ruled by shoguns, I would like to know what the nation was like before the Tokugawa lineage began.

The defeat of the Mongol invasions was of crucial importance in Japanese history. The military expenditure on preparations, continuous vigil, and actual fighting undermined the economic stability of the Kamakura government and led to the insolvency of many of the jito. The bond between the Hojo and the Kamakura vassals was strained to the breaking point. The invasions also led to another prolonged period of isolation from China that was to last until the 14th century. Moreover, the victory gave a great impetus to a feeling of national pride, and the kamikaze (quot;divine windquot;) that destroyed the invading hosts gave the Japanese the belief that they were a divinely protected people. The Japanese feudal system began to take shape under the Kamakura bakufu, though it remained only inchoate during the Kamakura period. Warrior-landlords lived in farming villages and supervised peasant labour or themselves carried on agriculture, while the central civil aristocracy and the temples and shrines held huge public lands (kokugaryo) and private estates in various provinces and wielded power comparable to that of the bakufu. These shoen were managed by influential resident landlords who had become warriors. They were often the original developers of their districts who became officials of the provincial government and agents of the shoen. Under the Kamakura bakufu, many such individuals became gokenin and were appointed jito in lands where the bakufu were allowed access. As leaders of a large number of villagers, these jito laboured to develop the rice fields and irrigation works in the areas under their jurisdiction, and they and other influential landlords constructed spacious homes for themselves in the villages and hamlets where they lived. The samurai, in theory, performed military service on the battlefield and during times of peace, in addition to managing agricultural holdings, engaging in hunting and training in the martial arts, and nourishing a rugged and practical character. Medieval texts speak of kyuba no michi (quot;the way of the bow and horsequot;), or yumiya toru mi no narai (quot;the practices of those who use the bow and arrowquot;), indicating that there was an emerging sense of ideal warrior behaviour that grew out of this daily training and the experience of actual warfare. Pride of family name was especially valued, and loyal service to one s overlord became the fundamental ethic. This was the origin of the more highly developed sense of a warrior code of later ages. Like his Heian predecessor, the Kamakura warrior was a mounted knight whose primary martial skill was equestrian archery. The status of women in warrior families was comparatively high; like their Heian predecessors, they were allowed to inherit a portion of the estates and even jito posts, a practice that gradually came to be restricted.

There were lots of wars.

it was still its weird self