'''Bakufu''' (lit. "tent government") is a term commonly used to refer to the samurai government, or shogunate. The term, however, was not commonly used during the periods of samurai rule. To the contrary, it only came into common usage within the [[Mito school]] of historical philosophy, during the mid- or late [[Edo period]], and only became truly standard during the [[Bakumatsu]] (1853-1868) and [[Meiji period]]s (1868-1912).<ref>Watanabe Hiroshi, Luke Roberts (trans.), "About Some Japanese Historical Terms," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'' 10:2 (1998), 32-35.</ref>