Why did the shoguns keep the Yamatos in place for hundreds of years?

by felidos

In similar situations elsewhere, powerless dynasties tend to be removed from the scene, e.g. Cao Cao/Cao Pi replacing the moribund Han dynasty with their own or Odoacer abolishing the office of Western Emperor. What made the situation in Japan different?

ParallelPain

Please see this thread

TL;DR: In no particular order

  1. By the time of the Shogunates, the Japanese were already very much used to having the Emperor not having too much personal power and having others rule in his name. Also, not touched on in the thread, the samurai were used to working for the court.
  2. The Emperor (and court) had strong symbolic value and legitimacy that the Shogunates knew and may even have also believed in.
  3. Neither the Kamakura nor the Muromachi Shogunates had the power to remove the Emperor without probably throwing the country into chaos from which they might not end up winning. The Edo Shogunate might have been strong enough to do so eventually, but by then it was more pain than it was worth.