The Edo period, or Tokugawa period, is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate. The Tokugawa shogunate was officially established in Edo on 24 March 1603 by the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown by the Meiji Restoration on 3 May 1868, the fall of Edo and the restoration of Tenno's rule at the reign of fifteenth and last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu.
