AHC/WI : No Shogunate, no Imperial restoration

What if the shogunate never devellops, or at least never holds, as a political institution in medieval Japan, while the emperor doesn't recover the power he lost IOTL, at least for a significant period of time?

What would have allowed that, and which kind of outcome would have been likely? A modus vivendi between clans, a slow recover from the emperors, balkanization of Japan and no Empire in the long run, easier foreign conquest?
 
I'd imagine a modus vivendi between clans for a while. perhaps maybe 3 generations, followed by a slow recovery of authority from the emperors as people get wary to the fighting and look for legitimacy.

I am assuming the emperor keeps his personal lands, which gives him forces at his direct disposal comparable to some of the major clans, he has the Kyoto area and 7 exclaves (OK, technically 3 since geographically an area isn't an exclave if it is next to the sea and the "heartland" is next tot he sea). I am also assuming that none of the clans hold his safety hostage (because that guy would just make a shogunate and be "supreme military commander and protector of the emperor" yadda)

I'm not an expert of the Ashikaga era or the Sengoku, but I feel I do know a fair amount more than many forum goers. This is before the sengoku though.
 
Then, could you devellop what it looked like, and how to prevent this established situation to form the Shogunate?
Tairas win?Basically,to my knowledge,what the dominant clan would do would be to marry their daughters to the emperor and as soon as an heir is produced,the emperor would be forced to abdicate to the young child(who would be your grandson/nephew),who would be raised under your care with you as the regent.The young emperor owns you loyalty as you are his grandfather/uncle,and when he grows up,you marry another member of your clan to him,and as soon as he produces an heir,he is forced to abdicate--the cycle repeats itself.
 
So, a same clan marries emperors to their daughters, and then marries the child to another of the clan's women? Wouldn't that increase the risk of congenital issues quite quickly?
What about other clans, wouldn't they try to do the same?
 
So, a same clan marries emperors to their daughters, and then marries the child to another of the clan's women? Wouldn't that increase the risk of congenital issues quite quickly?
What about other clans, wouldn't they try to do the same?
The clan in charge would basically monopolise access to the emperor and who he marries.As for congenital issues,I do believe there were severe congenital issues due to continuous breeding with the Fujiwara.IIRC,this is solved by getting multiple clan members married to the emperor in the hope that at least one of them would produce a healthy heir.
 
Something would come out of it to unify the place. The elites of Japan idealised the Heian era. If you could actually have a chance at re-establishing the Heian era in the centuries after it ended, there would be local Japanese elites leaping at that chance. This of course ignores that the conditions on the ground in terms of agriculture and such were no where near like the Heian era, but that wouldn't matter to them. Japan never established the bureaucracy China or even Korea did.

But if 19th century Europeans had came across this Japan, keeping this state, they would've been able to exploit its divides and colonise it.
 
Top