Despite a strong beginning, Yoritomo fails to consolidate the leadership of his family on a lasting basis.

Intrafamily contention have long existed within the Minamoto, although Yoritomo has eliminated most serious challengers to his authority.

When he dies suddenly in 1199, his son Yoriie becomes shogun and nominal head of the Minamoto, but Yoriie is unable to control the other eastern bushi families.

By the early thirteenth century, a regency has been established for the shogun by his maternal grandparents—members of the Hōjō family, a branch of the Taira that had had allied itself with the Minamoto in 1180.

Under the Hōjō, the bakufu become powerless, and the shogun, often a member of the Fujiwara family or even an imperial prince, is merely a figurehead.