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, officially , is a
city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
of
Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...
in
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. It is located in the
Kanto region Japanese Kanto is a simplified spelling of , a Japanese word, only omitting the diacritics. In Japan Kantō may refer to: *Kantō Plain *Kantō region * Kantō-kai, organized crime group * Kanto (Pokémon), a geographical region in the ''Pokém ...
on the island of
Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...
. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
of 4,359 people per km2 over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamakura was Japan's '' de facto'' capital when it was the seat of the
Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yori ...
from 1185 to 1333, established by
Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...
. It was the first military government in Japan's history. After the downfall of the shogunate, Kamakura saw a temporary decline. However, during the
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, it regained popularity as a tourist destination among the townspeople of
Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
. Despite suffering significant losses of historical and cultural assets due to the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923, Kamakura continues to be one of the major tourist attractions in the Kanto region, known for its historical landmarks such as
Tsurugaoka Hachimangū is the most important Shinto shrine in the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is a cultural center of the city of Kamakura and serves as the venue of many of its most important festivals with two museum ...
and the Great Buddha of Kamakura.


Toponomy

The name ''Kamakura'' appears in the of 712,Kamakura: History & Historic Sites – Origin of the Name Kamakura
the Kamakura Citizen Net, retrieved on April 27, 2008
and is also mentioned in the as well as in the of 938. However, the city clearly appears in the historical record only with
Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...
's founding of the
Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yori ...
in 1192. There are various hypotheses about the origin of the name. According to the most likely theory, Kamakura, surrounded as it is on three sides by mountains, was likened both to a and to a , because both only have one side open. Another and more picturesque explanation is a legend, relating how
Fujiwara no Kamatari , also known as , was a Japanese politician and aristocrat who, together with Prince Naka no Ōe (later Emperor Tenji), carried out the Taika Reform. He was the founder of the Fujiwara clan, the most powerful aristocratic family in Japan durin ...
stopped at
Yuigahama is a beach near Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The relation between the beach and its neighboring areas is complex. Although Yuigahama is legally the entire 3.2 km beach that goes from Inamuragasaki, which separates it from ...
on his way to today's
Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...
, where he wanted to pray at the
Kashima Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Kashima, Ibaraki in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It is dedicated to , one of the patron deities of martial arts. Various dōjō of ''kenjutsu'' and ''kendō'' often display a hanging scroll emblazoned with t ...
for the fall of
Soga no Iruka (died July 10, 645) was the son of Soga no Emishi, a statesman in the Asuka Period of Japan. He was assassinated at court in a coup d'état involving Nakatomi no Kamatari and Prince Naka-no-Ōe (see: Isshi Incident), who accused him of tryi ...
. He dreamed of an old man who promised his support, and upon waking, he found next to his bed a type of spear called a . Kamatari enshrined it in a place called Ōkura. ''Kamayari'' plus ''Ōkura'' then turned into the name ''Kamakura''. However, this and similar legends appear to have arisen only after Kamatari's descendant Fujiwara no Yoritsune became the fourth of the
Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yori ...
in 1226, some time after the name ''Kamakura'' appears in the historical record. It used to be also called (short for ).


History


Early history

The earliest traces of human settlements in the area date back at least 10,000 years.
Obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...
and stone tools found at excavation sites near were dated to the Old Stone Age (between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago). During the
Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...
, the sea level was higher than now and all the flat land in Kamakura up to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū and, further east, up to Yokohama's Totsuka-ku and Sakae-ku was under water. Thus, the oldest pottery fragments found come from hillside settlements of the period between 7500 BC and 5000 BC. In the late Jōmon period the sea receded and civilization progressed. During the
Yayoi period The Yayoi period (弥生時代, ''Yayoi jidai'') (c. 300 BC – 300 AD) is one of the major historical periods of the Japanese archipelago. It is generally defined as the era between the beginning of food production in Japan and the emergence o ...
(300 BC–300 AD), the sea receded further almost to today's coastline, and the economy shifted radically from hunting and fishing to farming.Kamakura: History and the Historic Sites – Through the Heian Period
the Kamakura Citizen Net, retrieved on April 27, 2008
The Azuma Kagami describes pre-shogunate Kamakura as a remote, forlorn place, but there is reason to believe its writers simply wanted to give the impression that prosperity had been brought there by the new regime.Takahashi (2005:8–10) To the contrary, it is known that by the
Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...
(about 700 AD) there were both temples and shrines. Sugimoto-dera for example was built during this period and is therefore one of the city's oldest temples. The town was also the seat of area government offices and the point of convergence of several land and marine routes. It seems therefore only natural that it should have been a city of a certain importance, likely to attract Yoritomo's attention.


Kamakura period

The extraordinary events, the historical characters and the culture of the twenty years which go from Minamoto no Yoritomo's birth to the assassination of the last of his sons have been throughout Japanese history the background and the inspiration for countless poems, books, TV dramas,
Kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...
plays, songs,
manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
and even videogames; and are necessary to make sense of much of what one sees in today's Kamakura. Yoritomo, after the defeat and almost complete extermination of his family at the hands of the
Taira clan The was one of the four most important Japanese clans, clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period, Heian period of History of Japan, Japanese history – the others being the Minamoto clan, Minamoto, the Fujiwara clan, Fuji ...
, managed in the space of a few years to go from being a fugitive hiding from his enemies inside a tree trunk to being the most powerful man in the land. Defeating the Taira clan, Yoritomo became ''de facto'' ruler of much of Japan and founder of the Kamakura shogunate, an institution destined to last 141 years and to have immense repercussions over the country's history. The Kamakura shogunate era is called by historians the
Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...
and, although its end is clearly set ( Siege of Kamakura (1333)), its beginning is not. Different historians put Kamakura's beginning at a different point in time within a range that goes from the establishment of Yoritomo's first military government in Kamakura (1180) to his elevation to the rank of in 1192.Takahashi (2005:2) It used to be thought that during this period, effective power had moved completely from the Emperor in Kyoto to Yoritomo in Kamakura, but the progress of research has revealed this was not the case. Even after the consolidation of the shogunate's power in the east, the Emperor continued to rule the country, particularly its west. However, it is undeniable that Kamakura had a certain autonomy and that it had surpassed the technical capital of Japan politically, culturally and economically. The shogunate even reserved for itself an area in Kyoto called where lived its representatives, who were there to protect its interests. In 1179, Yoritomo married
Hōjō Masako was a Japanese politician who exercised significant power in the early years of the Kamakura period, which was reflected by her contemporary sobriquet of the "nun shogun". She was the wife of Minamoto no Yoritomo, and mother of Minamoto no Yori ...
, an event of far-reaching consequences for Japan. In 1180, he entered Kamakura, building his residence in a valley called Ōkura (in today's
Nishi Mikado is the name of a neighborhood (a ) in Kamakura, a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km south-south-west of Tokyo. Nishi Mikado lies north-east of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū. Etymology of the name In 1180 the locality of in today's Ni ...
). The
stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...
on the spot reads: In 1185, his forces, commanded by his younger brother
Minamoto no Yoshitsune was a commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian period, Heian and early Kamakura period, Kamakura periods. During the Genpei War, he led a series of battles that toppled the Ise-Heishi branch of the Taira clan, helping his half-br ...
, vanquished the Taira and in 1192 he received from Emperor Go-Toba the title of . Yoshitsune's power would however cause Yoritomo's envy; the relationship between the brothers soured, and in 1189 Yoritomo was given Yoshitsune's head pickled in liquor. For the same reason, in 1193 he had his other brother Noriyori killed. Power was now firmly in his hands, but the Minamoto dynasty and its power however were to end as quickly and unexpectedly as they had started. In 1199, Yoritomo died falling from his horse at the age of 51, and was buried in a temple that had until then housed his tutelary goddess. He was succeeded by his 17-year-old son
Minamoto no Yoriie was the second ''shōgun'' (1202–1203) of Japan's Kamakura shogunate, and the first son of first shōgun Yoritomo. His Dharma name was Hokke-in-dono Kingo Da'i Zengo (法華院殿金吾大禅閤). Life Minamoto no Yoriie was born to Hōj ...
under the regency of his maternal grandfather
Hōjō Tokimasa was a Japanese samurai lord who was the first ''shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate and head of the Hōjō clan. He was ''shikken'' from 1203 until his abdication in 1205, and Protector of Kyoto from 1185 to 1186. Background The Hō ...
. A long and bitter fight ensued in which entire clans like the Hatakeyama, the Hiki, and the Wada were wiped out by the Hōjō who wished to get rid of Yoritomo's supporters and consolidate their power. Yoriie did become head of the
Minamoto was a noble surname bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility since 814."...the Minamoto (1192-1333)". ''Warrior Rule in Jap ...
clan and was regularly appointed in 1202 but by that time, real power had already fallen into the hands of the Hōjō clan. Yoriie plotted to take back his power, but failed and was assassinated on July 17, 1204. His six-year-old first son Ichiman had already been killed during political turmoil in Kamakura, while his second son Yoshinari at age six was forced to become a Buddhist priest under the name
Kugyō is the collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre-Meiji eras. The term generally referred to the and court officials and denoted a court rank between First Rank and Third Rank un ...
. From then on all power would belong to the Hōjō, and the would be just a figurehead. Since the Hōjō were part of the Taira clan, it can be said that the Taira had lost a battle, but in the end had won the war. Yoritomo's second son and third
Minamoto no Sanetomo was the third ''shōgun'' of the Kamakura shogunate. He was the second son of the Kamakura shogunate founder, Minamoto no Yoritomo. His mother was Hōjō Masako and his older brother was the second Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoriie. His child ...
spent most of his life staying out of politics and writing poetry, but was nonetheless assassinated in February 1219 by his nephew Kugyō under the giant
ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants, assigned to the gymnosperms. The scientific name is also used as the English common name. The order to which the genus belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, , and ''Ginkgo'' is n ...
tree whose trunk still stood at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū until it was uprooted by a storm in the early hours of March 10, 2010. Kugyō himself, the last of his line, was beheaded as a punishment for his crime by the Hōjō just hours later. Barely 30 years into the shogunate, the
Seiwa Genji The is a line of the Japanese Minamoto clan that is descended from Emperor Seiwa, which is the most successful and powerful line of the clan. Many of the most famous Minamoto members, including Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Minamoto no Yoritomo, ...
dynasty who had created it in Kamakura had ended.Kamakura: History & Historic Sites – The Kamakura Period
the Kamakura Citizen Net, retrieved on April 27, 2008
In 1293, a severe earthquake killed 23,000 people and seriously damaged the city. In the confusion following the quake, Hōjō Sadatoki, the Shikken of the Kamakura shogunate, carried out a purge against his subordinate Taira no Yoritsuna. In what is referred to as the Heizen Gate Incident, Yoritsuna and 90 of his followers were killed. The Hōjō regency however continued until
Nitta Yoshisada also known as Minamoto no Yoshisada was a samurai lord of the Nanboku-chō period Japan. He was the head of the Nitta clan in the early fourteenth century, and supported the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in the Nanboku-chō period. He famo ...
destroyed it in 1333 at the Siege of Kamakura. It was under the regency that Kamakura acquired many of its best and most prestigious temples and shrines, for example Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, Kenchō-ji, Engaku-ji, Jufuku-ji, Jōchi-ji, and Zeniarai Benten Shrine. The Hōjō family crest in the city is therefore still ubiquitous. From the middle of the thirteenth century, the fact that the vassals (the ) were allowed to become ''de facto'' owners of the land they administered, coupled to the custom that all children could inherit, led to the parcelization of the land and to a consequent weakening of the shogunate. This, and not lack of legitimacy, was the primary cause of the Hōjō's fall. According to The Institute for Research on World-Systems,Cities, Empires and Global State Formation. Institute for Research on World-Systems
/ref> Kamakura was the 4th largest city in the world in 1250 AD, with 200,000 people, and Japan's largest, eclipsing
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
by 1200 AD. Yet, despite Kamakura's annihilation of Kyoto-based political and military power at the
Battle of Dan-no-ura A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...
in 1185, and the failure of the Emperor to free himself from Kamakura's control during the
Jōkyū War , also known as the Jōkyū Disturbance or the Jōkyū Rebellion, was fought in Japan between the forces of Retired Emperor Go-Toba and those of the Hōjō clan, regents of the Kamakura shogunate, whom the retired emperor was trying to overthro ...
, Takahashi (2005) has questioned whether Kamakura's nationwide political hegemony actually existed. Takahashi claims that if Kamakura ruled the Kantō, not only was the Emperor in fact still the ruler of
Kansai The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropoli ...
, but during this period the city was in many ways politically and administratively still under the ancient capital of
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
. Kamakura was simply a rival center of political, economic and cultural power in a country that had Kyoto as its capital.


Nichiren in Kamakura

Kamakura is known among Buddhists for having been the cradle of
Nichiren Buddhism Nichiren Buddhism (), also known as ''Hokkeshū'' (, meaning ''Lotus Sect''), is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222–1282) and is one of the Kamakura period school ...
during the 13th century. Founder
Nichiren was a Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher of the Kamakura period. His teachings form the basis of Nichiren Buddhism, a unique branch of Japanese Mahayana Buddhism based on the '' Lotus Sutra''. Nichiren declared that the '' Lotus Sutra ...
was not a native; he was born in Awa Province, in today's
Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...
. But it was only natural for a preacher to come here because the city was the political centre of the country at the time.Mutsu (1995/06: 258–271) Nichiren settled down in a straw hut in the Matsubagayatsu (literally )The ending "ヶ谷", common in place names and usually read "-gaya", in Kamakura is normally pronounced "-gayatsu", as in Shakadōgayatsu, Ōgigayatsu, and Matsubagayatsu. district, where three temples (Ankokuron-ji, Myōhō–ji, and Chōshō-ji), have been fighting for centuries for the honour of being the true heir of the master. During his turbulent life Nichiren came and went, but Kamakura always remained at the heart of his religious activities. It is here that, when he was about to be executed by the Hōjō Regent for being a troublemaker, he was allegedly saved by a miracle; it is also in Kamakura that he wrote his famous , or , and that legend says he was rescued and fed by monkeys. Kamakura is also where he preached. Some Kamakura locations important to Nichiren Buddhism are: * The three temples in Matsubagayatsu Ankokuron-ji claims to have on its grounds the cave where the master, with the help of a white monkey, hid from his persecutors. (However Hosshō-ji in Zushi's Hisagi district makes the same claim, and with a better historical basis.) Within Ankokuron-ji lie also the spot where Nichiren used to meditate while admiring Mount Fuji, the place where his disciple Nichiro was cremated, and the cave where he is supposed to have written his . Nearby Myōhō–ji (also called Koke-dera or ), a much smaller temple, was erected in an area where Nichiren had his home for 19 years. The third Nichiren temple in Nagoe, Chōshō-ji, also claims to lie on the very spot where it all started. * The on Komachi Ōji in the Komachi district contains the very stone from which he used to harangue the crowds, claiming that the various calamities that were afflicting the city at the moment were due to the moral failings of its citizens. * The former execution ground at Katase's Ryūkō-ji where Nichiren was about to be beheaded (an event known to Nichiren's followers as the ), and where he was miraculously saved when thunder struck the executioner. Nichiren had been condemned to death for having written the .Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008: 46) Every year, on September 12, Nichiren devotees gather to celebrate the anniversary of the miracle. * The , the pine tree on the roads between Harisuribashi and Inamuragasaki from which Nichiren hanged his (a Buddhist stole) while on his way to Ryūkō-ji. The original pine tree however died long ago and, after having been replaced many times, now no longer exists.


Fall of the Kamakura shogunate

On July 3, 1333, warlord
Nitta Yoshisada also known as Minamoto no Yoshisada was a samurai lord of the Nanboku-chō period Japan. He was the head of the Nitta clan in the early fourteenth century, and supported the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in the Nanboku-chō period. He famo ...
, who was an Emperor loyalist, attacked Kamakura to reestablish imperial rule. After trying to enter by land through the Kewaizaka Pass and the Gokuraku-ji Pass, he and his forces waited for a low tide, bypassed the Inamuragasaki cape, entered the city and took it.Mutsu (1995/06: 19–40) In accounts of that disastrous Hōjō defeat it is recorded that nearly 900 Hōjō samurai, including the last three Regents, committed suicide at their family temple,
Tōshō-ji was the Hōjō clan's family temple (''bodaiji'') in Kamakura during the Kamakura period. Its founder was Taikō Gyōyū and it was constructed in 1237 by Hōjō Yasutoki in memory of his mother, who had her tomb there. According to the Taiheik ...
, whose ruins have been found in today's Ōmachi. Almost the entire clan vanished at once, the city was sacked and many temples were burned. Many simple citizens imitated the Hōjō, and an estimated total of over 6,000 died on that day of their own hand. In 1953, 556 skeletons of that period were found during excavations near Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's Ichi no Torii in Yuigahama, all of people who had died of a violent death, probably at the hand of Nitta's forces.


Muromachi and Edo periods

The fall of Kamakura marks the beginning of an era in Japanese history characterized by chaos and violence called the
Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...
. Kamakura's decline was slow, and in fact the next phase of its history, in which, as the capital of the
Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...
, it dominated the east of the country, lasted almost as long as the shogunate had. Kamakura would come out of it almost completely destroyed.Papinot (1906:247–248) The situation in Kantō after 1333 continued to be tense, with Hōjō supporters staging sporadic revolts here and there. In 1335,
Hōjō Tokiyuki was a samurai of the Hōjō clan who fought both for and against the Imperial Court. His father was Hōjō Takatoki, a Shikken, Shogunal Regent and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kamakura shogunate. Biography Tokiyuki had fought against both the ...
, son of last
regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
Takatoki, tried to re-establish the shogunate by force and defeated Kamakura's ''de facto'' ruler
Ashikaga Tadayoshi "Ashikaga Tadayoshi" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 624. was a general of the Nanboku-chō period, Northern and Southern Courts period (1337� ...
in Musashi, in today's
Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...
.Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008:24–25) He was in his turn defeated in Koshigoe by
Ashikaga Takauji also known as Minamoto no Takauji was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate."Ashikaga Takauji" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. ...
, who had come in force from Kyoto to help his brother. Takauji, founder of the Ashikaga shogunate which, at least nominally, ruled Japan during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, at first established his residence at the same site in Kamakura where Yoritomo's had been, but in 1336 he left Kamakura in charge of his son Yoshiakira and went west in pursuit of Nitta Yoshisada.Sansom (1977:22) The Ashikaga then decided to permanently stay in Kyoto, making Kamakura instead the capital of the (or ), a region including the provinces of Sagami, Musashi, Awa, Kazusa, Shimōsa,
Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...
, Kozuke, Shimotsuke, Kai, and Izu, to which were later added Mutsu and Dewa, making it the equivalent to today's Kanto, plus the Shizuoka and
Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...
s.Matsuo (1997:V-VI) Kamakura's ruler was called , a title equivalent to assumed by Ashikaga Takauji's son Motouji after his nomination to , or deputy , in 1349.
Kokushi Daijiten The ''Kokushi Daijiten'' (国史大辞典 literally "Great Dictionary of National History") all no.: REF DS 833 .K64, (Vol. 1)is a large, general history dictionary of Japan published by the Tokyo-based company Yoshikawa Kobunkan. The original ...
(1983:542)
Motouji transferred his original title to the Uesugi family, which had previously held the hereditary title of , and would thereafter provide the . Motouji had been sent by his father because this last understood the importance of controlling the Kantō region and wanted to have an Ashikaga in power there, but the administration in Kamakura was from the beginning characterized by its rebelliousness, so the 's idea never really worked and actually backfired.Jansen (1995:119–120) The era is essentially a struggle for the shogunate between the Kamakura and the Kyoto branches of the Ashikaga clan, because both believed they had a valid claim to power. In the end, Kamakura had to be retaken by force in 1454. The five recorded by history, all of Motouji's bloodline, were in order Motouji himself, Ujimitsu, Mitsukane, Mochiuji and Shigeuji. The last had to escape to
Koga Koga may refer to: Places Japan * Koga, Ibaraki (古河) * Koga, Fukuoka (古賀) * Koga Domain Elsewhere * Koga, a town in Tanzania * Koga (crater) on Mars Other uses * Koga (surname) * Kōga-ryū, a school of ninjutsu * Koga clan, Jap ...
, in today's Ibaraki prefecture, and he and his descendants thereafter became known as the . According to the Shinpen Kamakurashi, a guide book published in 1685, more than two centuries later the spot where the 's mansion had been was still left empty by local peasants in the hope he may one day return. A long period of chaos and war followed the departure of the last (the
Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...
). Kamakura was heavily damaged in 1454 and almost completely burned during the Siege of Kamakura (1526). Many of its citizens moved to Odawara when it came to prominence as the home town of the
Later Hōjō clan The was one of the most powerful samurai families in Japan in the Sengoku period and held domains primarily in the Kantō region. Their last name was simply , but were called "Later Hōjō" to differentiate between the earlier Hōjō clan who h ...
. The final blow to the city was the decision taken in 1603 by the Tokugawa to move the capital to nearby
Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
, the place now called Tokyo. The city never recovered and gradually returned to be the small fishing village it had been before Yoritomo's arrival. Edmond Papinot's ''Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan'', published in 1910 during the late Meiji period, describes it as follows:


Meiji period and the 20th century

After the
Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
, Kamakura's great cultural assets, its beach, and the mystique that surrounded its name made it as popular as it is now, and for essentially the same reasons. The destruction of its heritage nonetheless did not stop: during the anti-Buddhist violence of 1868 () that followed the official policy of separation of Shinto and Buddhism () many of the city temples were damaged. In other cases, because mixing the two religions was now forbidden, shrines or temples had to give away some of their treasures, thus damaging their cultural heritage and decreasing the value of their properties. Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's giant (the two wooden warden gods usually found at the sides of a Buddhist temple's entrance), for example, being objects of Buddhist worship and therefore illegal where they were, were brought to Jufuku-ji, where they still are. The
shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...
also had to destroy Buddhism-related buildings, for example its tower, its , and its . Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008: 28) Some Buddhist temples were simply closed, like
Zenkō-ji is a Buddhism, Buddhist temple located in the city of Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Japan. The temple was built in the 7th century. It is one of the few remaining pilgrimage sites in Japan. The modern city of Nagano began as a town built around the ...
, to which the now-independent
Meigetsu-in is a Rinzai Zen temple of the Kenchō-ji school in Kita-Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. It is also known as ''The Temple of Hydrangeas'' (ajisai-dera). The main object of worship is goddess Shō Kannon (聖観音). History Meigetsu-in was built ...
used to belong. In 1890, the railroad, which until then had arrived just to Ofuna, reached Kamakura bringing in tourists and new residents, and with them a new prosperity. Part of the ancient Dankazura (see above) was removed to let the railway system's new Yokosuka Line pass. The damage caused by time, centuries of neglect, politics, and modernization was further compounded by nature in 1923. The epicenter of the Great Kantō earthquake that year was deep beneath
Izu Ōshima is an inhabited volcanic island in the Izu archipelago in the Philippine Sea, off the coast of Honshu, Japan, east of the Izu Peninsula and southwest of Bōsō Peninsula. As with the other islands in the Izu Island group, Izu Ōshima forms ...
Island in Sagami Bay, a short distance from Kamakura. Tremors devastated Tokyo, the port city of
Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...
, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba,
Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...
, and Shizuoka, causing widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. It was reported that the sea receded at an unprecedented velocity, and then waves rushed back towards the shore in a great wall of water over seven meters high, drowning some and crushing others beneath an avalanche of waterborne debris. The total death toll from earthquake, tsunami, and fire exceeded 2,000 victims. Large sections of the shore simply slid into the sea; and the beach area near Kamakura was raised up about six-feet; or in other words, where there had only been a narrow strip of sand along the sea, a wide expanse of sand was fully exposed above the waterline. Many temples founded centuries ago have required restoration, and it is for this reason that Kamakura has just one
National Treasure A national treasure is a structure, artifact, object or cultural work that is officially or popularly recognized as having particular value to the nation, or representing the ideals of the nation. The term has also been applied to individuals or ...
in the building category (the Shariden at
Engaku-ji , or Engaku-ji (円覚寺), is one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa Prefecture to the south of Tokyo. Founded ...
). Much of Kamakura's heritage was for various reasons over the centuries first lost and later rebuilt.Kamakura: History and the Historic Sites – Kamakura in the Modern era (the Meiji period)
and following sections, The Kamakura Citizen net, retrieved on April 5, 2008]


Geography

Surrounded to the north, east, and west by hills and to the south by the open water of
Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the i ...
, Kamakura is a natural fortress.Hiking to Kamakura's Seven Entrances and Seven Passes
The Kamakura Citizen Net
Before the construction of several tunnels and modern roads that now connect it to Fujisawa, , and Zushi, on land it could be entered only through narrow artificial passes, among which the seven most important were called , a name sometimes translated as . The natural fortification made Kamakura an easily defensible stronghold. Before the opening of the Entrances, access on land was so difficult that the Azuma Kagami reports that Hōjō Masako came back to Kamakura from a visit to Sōtōzan temple in Izu bypassing by boat the impassable Inamuragasaki cape and arriving in Yuigahama. Again according to the Azuma Kagami, the first of the Kamakura ,
Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...
, chose it as a base partly because it was his ancestors' land (his ), and partly because of these physical characteristics. To the north of the city stands (), which then passes behind the
Daibutsu or 'giant Buddha' is the Japanese language, Japanese term, often used informally, for large Japanese sculpture, statues of List of Buddhas, Buddha. The oldest is that at Asuka-dera (609) and the best-known is that at Tōdai-ji in Nara, Nara, N ...
and reaches Inamuragasaki and the sea.Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008: 64) From the north to the east, Kamakura is surrounded by (), (), (), (), and (), which extend all the way to Iijimagasaki and Wakae Island, on the border with Kotsubo and Zushi. From Kamakura's alluvional plain branch off numerous narrow valleys like the Urigayatsu, Shakadōgayatsu, Ōgigayatsu, Kamegayatsu, Hikigayatsu, and Matsubagayatsu valleys. Kamakura is crossed by the Namerigawa river, which goes from the Asaina Pass in northern Kamakura to the beach in
Yuigahama is a beach near Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The relation between the beach and its neighboring areas is complex. Although Yuigahama is legally the entire 3.2 km beach that goes from Inamuragasaki, which separates it from ...
for a total length of about . The river marks the border between Zaimokuza and Yuigahama. In administrative terms, the municipality of Kamakura borders with
Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...
to the north, with Zushi to the east, and with Fujisawa to the west. It includes many areas outside the Seven Entrances as Yamanouchi, , Shichirigahama, and Ofuna, and is the result of the fusion of Kamakura proper with the cities of Koshigoe, absorbed in 1939, Ofuna, absorbed in 1948, and with the village of Fukasawa, absorbed in 1948.


Kita-Kamakura (Yamanouchi)

Northwest of Kamakura lies Yamanouchi, commonly called Kita-Kamakura because of the presence of
East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...
's (JR) Kita-Kamakura Station. Yamanouchi, however, was technically never a part of historical Kamakura since it is outside the Seven Entrances. Yamanouchi was the northern border of the city during the shogunate,Ōnuki (2008:50) and the important Kobukorozaka and Kamegayatsu Passes, two of Kamakura's Seven Entrances, led directly to it. Its name at the time used to be . The border post used to lie about a hundred meters past today's Kita-Kamakura train station in Ofuna's direction. Although very small, Yamanouchi is famous for its traditional atmosphere and the presence, among others, of three of the five highest-ranking
Rinzai The Rinzai school (, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng), named after Linji Yixuan (Romaji: Rinzai Gigen, died 866 CE) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school of ...
Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
temples in Kamakura, the . These three great temples were built here because Yamanouchi was the home territory of the
Hōjō clan The was a Japanese samurai family who controlled the hereditary title of '' shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate between 1203 and 1333. Despite the title, in practice the family wielded actual political power in Japan during this perio ...
, a branch of the Taira clan which ruled Japan for 150 years. Among Kita-Kamakura's most illustrious citizens were artist
Isamu Noguchi was an American artist, furniture designer and Landscape architecture, landscape architect whose career spanned six decades from the 1920s. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Grah ...
and movie director
Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese filmmaker. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in the 1930s. The most pr ...
. Ozu is buried at
Engaku-ji , or Engaku-ji (円覚寺), is one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa Prefecture to the south of Tokyo. Founded ...
.


Wakamiya Ōji and the shogunate's six avenues

Kamakura's defining feature is Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, a
Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...
in the center of the city. A runs from
Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the i ...
directly to the shrine. This road is known as
Wakamiya Ōji is a 1.8 km street in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan, unusual because it is at the same time the city's main avenue and the approach () of its largest Shinto shrine, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū. Over the cen ...
, the city's main street. Built by
Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...
as an imitation of Kyoto's Suzaku Ōji, Wakamiya Ōji used to be much wider, delimited on both sides by a canal and flanked by pine trees.Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008: 56–57) Walking from the beach toward the shrine, one passes through three , or Shinto gates, called respectively (), () and (). Between the first and the second lies Geba Yotsukado which, as the name indicates, was the place where riders had to get off their horses in deference to
Hachiman In Japanese religion, ''Yahata'' (八幡神, ancient Shinto pronunciation) formerly in Shinto and later commonly known as Hachiman (八幡神, Japanese Buddhist pronunciation) is the syncretic divinity of archery and war, incorporating elements f ...
and his shrine. Approximately after the second , the , a raised pathway flanked by cherry trees that marks the center of Kamakura, begins. The becomes gradually wider, giving the effect of looking longer than it really is when viewed from the shrine. Its entire length is under the direct administration of the shrine. Minamoto no Yoritomo made his father-in-law
Hōjō Tokimasa was a Japanese samurai lord who was the first ''shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate and head of the Hōjō clan. He was ''shikken'' from 1203 until his abdication in 1205, and Protector of Kyoto from 1185 to 1186. Background The Hō ...
and his men carry by hand the stones to build it to pray for the safe delivery of his son Yoriie. The used to go all the way to Geba, but it was drastically shortened during the 19th century to make way for the newly constructed Yokosuka railroad line. In Kamakura, wide streets are known as , narrower streets as , the small streets that connect the two as , and intersections as . Komachi Ōji and Ima Kōji run respectively east and west of Wakamiya Ōji, while Yoko Ōji, the road that passes right under , and Ōmachi Ōji, which goes from Kotsubo to Geba and
Hase The Hase () is a river of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Ems, but part of its flow goes to the Else, that is part of the Weser basin. Its source is in the Teutoburg Forest, south-east of Osnabrück, on the north slope ...
, run in the east–west direction. Near the remains of Hama no Ōtorii runs Kuruma Ōji Avenue (also called Biwa Koji). These six streets (three running north to south and three east to west) were built at the time of the shogunate and are all still under heavy use. The only one to have been modified is Kuruma Ōji, a segment of which has disappeared.


Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kamakura has remained relatively steady in recent decades.


Notable locations

Kamakura has many historically significant
Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
temples and
Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
shrines, some of them, like Sugimoto-dera, over 1,200 years old.
Kōtoku-in is a Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temple of the Jōdo-shū sect in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Its mountain name is , and its common temple name is . The temple is renowned for , a monumental outdoor bronze stat ...
, with its monumental outdoor bronze
statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...
of Amida Buddha, is the most famous. A 15th-century
tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
destroyed the temple that once housed the Great Buddha, but the statue survived and has remained outdoors ever since. This iconic Daibutsu is arguably amongst the few images which have come to represent Japan in the world's collective imagination. Kamakura also hosts the so-called Five Great Zen Temples (the ). The architectural heritage of Kamakura is almost unmatched, and the city has proposed some of its historic sites for inclusion in
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
's
World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
s list. Although much of the city was devastated in the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, damaged temples and shrines, founded centuries ago, have since been carefully restored. Some of Kamakura's highlights are: * The Asaina Pass and its Kumano Jinja * Ankokuron-ji * An'yō-in * Chōju-ji, one of Ashikaga Takauji's two (funeral temples) *
Engaku-ji , or Engaku-ji (円覚寺), is one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa Prefecture to the south of Tokyo. Founded ...
, ranked Number Two among Kamakura's Great Zen Temples * Hatakeyama Shigeyasu's grave * Hōkai-ji, dedicated to the memory of the Hōjō clan * Jōchi-ji, ranked Number Four among Kamakura's Great Zen Temples * Jōmyō-ji temple, ranked Number Five among Kamakura's Great Zen Temples *
Jufuku-ji , usually known as Jufuku-ji, is a temple of the Kenchō-ji branch of the Rinzai sect and the oldest Zen temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Ranked third among Kamakura's prestigious Five Mountains, it is number 24 among the pilgrimag ...
, ranked Number Three among Kamakura's Great Zen Temples *
Hase-dera is the main temple of the Shingon-shu Buzan-ha, Buzan sect of Shingon Buddhism. The temple is located in Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The Main Hall is a National Treasure (Japan), National Treasure of Japan. Overview Accord ...
*
Kamakura-gū is a shrine in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It was erected by Emperor Meiji in 1869 to enshrine the spirit of Prince Morinaga, who was imprisoned and later executed where the shrine now stands in 1335 by order of Ashikaga Tadayoshi. For t ...
in Nikaidō, built on the spot where
Prince Morinaga (1308 – August 12, 1335) was a Japanese prince and monk. He was the son of Emperor Go-Daigo and his consort Minamoto no Chikako. Moriyoshi was named by his father as the head abbot of the Enryaku-ji temple on Mount Hiei. Go-Daigo attemp ...
, son of Emperor Go-Daigo, was imprisoned and then beheaded by
Ashikaga Tadayoshi "Ashikaga Tadayoshi" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 624. was a general of the Nanboku-chō period, Northern and Southern Courts period (1337� ...
in 1335. * The Kamakura Museum of Literature, the former villa of Marquises Maeda * Kamakura Museum of National Treasures * Kanagawa Prefectural Ofuna Botanical Garden *
Kenchō-ji Kenchō-ji (建長寺) is a Rinzai Zen temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, which ranks first among Kamakura's so-called Five Great Zen Temples (the ''Kamakura Gozan'') and is the oldest Zen training monastery in Jap ...
, ranked Number One among Kamakura's Great Zen Temples and, together with Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, the pride of the city * Kōmyō-ji *
Kōtoku-in is a Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temple of the Jōdo-shū sect in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Its mountain name is , and its common temple name is . The temple is renowned for , a monumental outdoor bronze stat ...
and its Great Buddha *
Meigetsu-in is a Rinzai Zen temple of the Kenchō-ji school in Kita-Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. It is also known as ''The Temple of Hydrangeas'' (ajisai-dera). The main object of worship is goddess Shō Kannon (聖観音). History Meigetsu-in was built ...
* Moto Hachiman * Myōhon-ji *
Ōfuna Kannon is a Buddhist temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The statue stands at 25 meters/82 feet tall and weighs nearly 2,000 tons. It depicts the East Asian bodhisattva (a being that foregoes their nirvana in order to stay on Earth and help ...
* Katase's Ryūkō-ji * Sasuke Inari Shrine and Hidden Village * The Shakadō Pass (see description below) * Sugimoto-dera *
Tamanawa Castle was a castle structure in Tamanawa ward of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The adopted brother of Hōjō Ujiyasu, Hōjō Tsunashige, was commander of the castle. History Hōjō Sōun who had been fighting with the Miura clan built the c ...
, Castle ruins of
Later Hōjō clan The was one of the most powerful samurai families in Japan in the Sengoku period and held domains primarily in the Kantō region. Their last name was simply , but were called "Later Hōjō" to differentiate between the earlier Hōjō clan who h ...
* Tatsunokuchi, where
Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...
emissaries were beheaded and buried. * Tōkei-ji, famous in the past as a refuge for battered women *
Tomb of Minamoto no Yoritomo The (see photo below) is a monument in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture, Kanagawa, Japan, located some hundred meters north of the site where the palace called ''Ōkura Bakufu'', seat of Minamoto no Yoritomo's government, once sto ...
* Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, symbol of the city *
Wakamiya Ōji is a 1.8 km street in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan, unusual because it is at the same time the city's main avenue and the approach () of its largest Shinto shrine, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū. Over the cen ...
Avenue with its three and cherry trees *
Yuigahama is a beach near Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The relation between the beach and its neighboring areas is complex. Although Yuigahama is legally the entire 3.2 km beach that goes from Inamuragasaki, which separates it from ...
, a popular beach * Zeniarai Benzaiten Shrine, where visitors go to wash their coins *
Zuisen-ji is a Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temple of the Rinzai sect in Nikaidō's in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura, Japan.Kamiya (2008:98-102) During the Muromachi period it was the bodaiji, family temple of the Ashikaga rulers of Kamakura (the '' ...
, funeral temple of the Ashikaga , rulers in Kamakura during the early
Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...


Shakadō Pass

Besides the Seven Entrances there is another great pass in the city, the huge , which connects Shakadōgayatsu to the Ōmachi and Nagoe (formerly called Nagoshi) districts. According to the plaque near the pass itself, the name derives from the fact that third
Shikken The was a senior government post held by members of the Hōjō clan, officially a regent of the shogunate. From 1199 to 1333, during the Kamakura period, the ''shikken'' served as the head of the ''bakufu'' (shogun's government). This era was ref ...
Hōjō Yasutoki Hōjō Yasutoki (; 1183 – July 14, 1242) was the third ''shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate in Japan. He strengthened the political system of the Hōjō regency. Life He was the eldest son of second ''shikken'' Hōjō Yoshitoki. A ...
built here a Shakadō (a Buddhist temple devoted to Shakyamuni) dedicated to his father Yoshitoki's memory. The original location of the temple is unclear, but it was closed some time in the middle
Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...
.Kamiya Vol. 1 (2006/08: 71 – 72) The Shaka Nyorai statue that is supposed to have been its main object of cult has been declared an Important Cultural Property and is conserved at Daien-ji in
Meguro is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Meguro City. The ward was founded on March 15, 1947. Meguro is predominantly residential in character ...
, Tokyo. Although important, the pass was not considered one of the Entrances because it connected two areas both fully within Kamakura. Its date of creation is unclear, as it is not explicitly mentioned in any historical record, and it could be therefore recent. It seems very likely however that a pass which connected the Kanazawa Road to the Nagoe area called and mentioned in the in relation to an 1180 war in Kotsubo between the
Miura clan The was one of the branch families descended from the Taira clan. They held large fiefs, and retained great political influence. They were one of the primary opponents of the Hōjō clan, Hōjō family of Shikken, regents in the mid-13th ce ...
and the
Hatakeyama clan The was a Japanese samurai clan. Originally a branch of the Taira clan and descended from Taira no Takamochi, they fell victim to political intrigue in 1205, when Hatakeyama Shigeyasu, first, and his father Shigetada later were killed in batt ...
is indeed the Shakadō Pass. In any case, the presence of two tombs within it means that it can be dated to at least the Kamakura period. It was then an important way of transit, but it was also much narrower than today and harder to pass. Inside the pass, there are two small tombs containing some . On the Shakadōgayatsu side of the pass, just before the first houses a small street on the left takes to a large group of called . There rest the bones of some of the hundreds of Hōjō family members who committed suicide at
Tōshō-ji was the Hōjō clan's family temple (''bodaiji'') in Kamakura during the Kamakura period. Its founder was Taikō Gyōyū and it was constructed in 1237 by Hōjō Yasutoki in memory of his mother, who had her tomb there. According to the Taiheik ...
after the fall of Kamakura in 1333. The pass appears many times in some recent Japanese films like "The Blue Light", , and . The pass is presently closed to all traffic because of the danger posed by falling rocks. On April 28, 2010, a day of heavy rain, a large section of rock on the Omachi side of the Shakado Pass gave way, making the road temporarily impassable for pedestrians.


tombs

An important and characteristic feature of Kamakura is a type of grave called .Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008: 35 – 36) are caves dug on the side of hills during the Middle Ages to serve as tombs for high-ranking personalities and priests. Two famous examples are Hōjō Masako's and Minamoto no Sanetomo's
cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...
s in
Jufuku-ji , usually known as Jufuku-ji, is a temple of the Kenchō-ji branch of the Rinzai sect and the oldest Zen temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Ranked third among Kamakura's prestigious Five Mountains, it is number 24 among the pilgrimag ...
's cemetery, about from Kamakura Station. Usually present in the cemetery of most Buddhist temples in the town, they are extremely numerous also in the hills surrounding it, and estimates of their number always put them in the thousands. can be found either isolated or in groups of even 180 graves, as in the . Many are now abandoned and in a bad state of preservation. The reason why they were dug is not known, but it is thought likely that the tradition started because of the lack of flat land within the narrow limits of Kamakura's territory. Started during the
Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...
(1185–1333), the tradition seems to have declined during the following
Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...
, when storehouses and cemeteries came to be preferred. True can be found also in the
Miura Peninsula is a peninsula located in Kanagawa, Japan. It lies south of Yokohama and Tokyo and divides Tokyo Bay, to the east, from Sagami Bay, to the west. Cities and towns on the Miura Peninsula include Yokosuka, Miura, Hayama, Zushi, and Kamak ...
, in the
Izu Peninsula The is a mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan, the largest of the four main islands of Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsu ...
, and even in distant
Awa Province (Chiba) was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Awa no Kuni''" in . It lies on the tip of the Bōsō Peninsula (房総半島), whose name takes its firs ...
. Tombs in caves can also be found in the Tōhoku region, near
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...
and
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
, and in
Ishikawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,096,721 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,186 Square kilometre, km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Pr ...
, however they are not called and their relationship with those in Kanagawa Prefecture is unknown.


Festivals and other events

Kamakura has many festivals () and other events in each of the seasons, usually based on its rich historical heritage. They are often sponsored by private businesses and, unlike those in
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
, they are relatively small-scale events attended mostly by locals and a few tourists.Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008: 170–188) January in particular has many because it is the first month of the year, so authorities, fishermen, businesses and artisans organize events to pray for their own health and safety, and for a good and prosperous working year. Kamakura's numerous temples and shrines, first among them city symbols Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū and Kenchō-ji, organize many events too, bringing the total to over a hundred.


January

* January 4: at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū: This event marks the beginning of the working year for local construction workers who, for the ceremony, use traditional working tools. The festival also commemorates Minamoto no Yoritomo, who ordered the reconstruction of the main building of the shrine after it was destroyed by fire in 1191. The ceremony takes place at 1:00pm at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū.


February

* Day before the first day of spring (usually February 3): at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū,
Kenchō-ji Kenchō-ji (建長寺) is a Rinzai Zen temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, which ranks first among Kamakura's so-called Five Great Zen Temples (the ''Kamakura Gozan'') and is the oldest Zen training monastery in Jap ...
,
Hase-dera is the main temple of the Shingon-shu Buzan-ha, Buzan sect of Shingon Buddhism. The temple is located in Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The Main Hall is a National Treasure (Japan), National Treasure of Japan. Overview Accord ...
,
Kamakura-gū is a shrine in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It was erected by Emperor Meiji in 1869 to enshrine the spirit of Prince Morinaga, who was imprisoned and later executed where the shrine now stands in 1335 by order of Ashikaga Tadayoshi. For t ...
, etc.: Celebration of the end of winter. Soybeans are scattered in the air to ensure good luck.


April

*2nd to 3rd Sunday: at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū and other locations: A whole week of events that celebrate the city and its history.


May

* May 5: at the Kamakura Shrine: Archers in samurai gear shoot arrows at a straw deer while reciting old poems.


August

* August 10 (or following Monday if it falls on a Saturday): A full hour of fireworks on the beach in
Yuigahama is a beach near Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The relation between the beach and its neighboring areas is complex. Although Yuigahama is legally the entire 3.2 km beach that goes from Inamuragasaki, which separates it from ...
.


September

* September 14, 15 and 16: : Famous festival with many attractions, the most famous of which is the , or Japanese horseback archery, which takes place on the 16th.Kamakura City's List of Festivals and Events


Transportation


Rail

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...
's
Yokosuka Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The Yokosuka Line connects Tokyo Station with in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. Officially, the name Yokosuka Line is assigned to the segment between and Kurihama sta ...
has three stations within the city.
Ōfuna Station Ōfuna Station (, ) is a railway station in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and Shonan Monorail. Lines Ōfuna Station is served by the Tokaido Main Line, Shōnan-Shinjuku Line, Negishi Line (Keihin-T� ...
is the northernmost. Next is Kita-Kamakura Station. In the center of the city is Kamakura Station, the central railway station in the city. Kamakura Station is the terminal for the
Enoshima Electric Railway is a private railway operator in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa, Japan. Its sole line, the Enoshima Dentetsu Line, connects Kamakura Station in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura with Fujisawa Station in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Fujisawa. Both the company ...
. This railway runs westward to Fujisawa, and part of its route runs parallel to the seashore. After leaving Kamakura Station, trains make eight more station stops in the city. One of them is Hase Station, closest to
Hase-dera is the main temple of the Shingon-shu Buzan-ha, Buzan sect of Shingon Buddhism. The temple is located in Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The Main Hall is a National Treasure (Japan), National Treasure of Japan. Overview Accord ...
and
Kōtoku-in is a Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temple of the Jōdo-shū sect in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Its mountain name is , and its common temple name is . The temple is renowned for , a monumental outdoor bronze stat ...
. The next station on the line is Gokurakuji Station, one of the settings for the 2014 film Our Little Sister.


Highway

* National Route 134


Education

Kamakura has many educational facilities. The city operates sixteen public elementary schools and nine middle schools. The national government has one elementary and one middle school, and there are two private elementary and six private middle schools. At the next level are four prefectural and six private high schools. Also in Kamakura is a prefectural special school. Kamakura Women's University is the city's sole university.


Government and administration

Kamakura has a mayor and a city council, all publicly elected. The mayor is Takashi Matsuo. The City Council consists of 28 members.


Sister cities

Kamakura has six
sister cities A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there ar ...
. Three are in Japan and three are overseas:Introduction to Kamakura かまくら GreenNet
*
Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million *
Ueda, Nagano is a Cities of Japan, city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 157,480 in 67,783 households, and a population density of 290 persons per km2. The total area of the city is , which makes it the fifth la ...
, Japan, since 1979 *
Hagi, Yamaguchi file:Hagicity aerialshot.jpg, 270px, Aerial view of central Hagi is a Cities of Japan, city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 43,233 in 22,803 households and a population density of 62 persons per k ...
, Japan, since 1979 *
Ashikaga, Tochigi is a Cities of Japan, city located in Tochigi Prefecture of Honshu, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 140,036, in 62,123 households and a population density of 788 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Ashika ...
, Japan, since 1982 *
Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Sachu (Dunhuang) was ...
, China, since 1998 *
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
, United States, since 2014


Attractions

Kamakura has many historical houses
Tukikagetei
is one of the famous houses. It had constructed 100 years ago in the Taisho era. But now, Fukagawa Geisha uses this house for their lives.


Notes


Citations


General and cited references

* * Hammer, Joshua (2006)
''Yokohama Burning: The Deadly 1923 Earthquake and Fire that Helped Forge the Path to World War II''
New York:
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...
. (cloth) * *
Kamakura City's List of Festivals and Events
*

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Official Website

Kanagawa Official Tourism Website
* {{Authority control Cities in Kanagawa Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan