is a beach near
Kamakura
, officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...
, a city in
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 ...
Prefecture,
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 ...
. 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
Shichirigahama, to
Zaimokuza's Iijima cape, which separates it from
Kotsubo and 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 ...
, the name is customarily used to indicate the portion west of the
Namerigawa river, while the eastern half is called .
[Kamakura's Official Textbook for Culture and Tourism (2008:33)] This is the reason why, although the beach gives its name to only the west part of the beachside community, traces of the name Yuigahama can be found also in Zaimokuza (for example in
Moto Hachiman's official name, Yui Wakamiya). The center of Yuigahama came legally into being between 1964 and 1965 and was named after the beach. Today's Yuigahama was until then divided between Zaimokuza,
Ōmachi, 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 ...
.
There are different theories about the origin of the name. According to one it derives from an earlier one, .
According to another it derives from the presence of a cooperative ().
The name Yui itself has been written in various ways, among them 由井 and 湯井.
History
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 ...
both the beach and the nearby areas were called .
[Nihon Rekishi Chimei Taikei, "Maehama"] The name appears repeatedly in the
Azuma Kagami to indicate spots going from Hase to
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 ...
.
It was used to practice martial arts such as (horseback archery) and
yabusame (a horseback archery competition).
[Kusumoto (2002:48–49)] It became a battlefield in 1180 at the time of the battle against
Hatakeyama Shigetada, and again in 1333 for the fight between
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 ...
and the defense forces of the
Hōjō. Lastly, it became a battleground in 1416 during
Uesugi Zenshū
, also known as Uesugi Ujinori, was the chief advisor to Ashikaga Mochiuji, an enemy of the Ashikaga shogunate in feudal Japan. When he was rebuked by Mochiuji in 1415, and forced to resign, Zenshū organized a rebellion.
Zenshū received aid ...
's rebellion.
Human bones of the era are still occasionally found during excavations. It is on this beach that
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 ...
, the founder of the Buddhist Nichiren sect, was put on a boat to be taken to
Katase and ordered to be executed.
The beach was considered sacred ground to the
Minamoto clan
was a Aristocracy (class), noble surname bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the Imperial House of Japan, imperial family who were excluded from the List of emperors of Japan, line of succession and demoted into the ranks of Nobili ...
and, before visiting shrines in
Izu or
Hakone
is a List of towns in Japan, town in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the town had a population of 10,965, and total area of .
Hakone is a notable spa town and a popular tourist destination due to its many onsen, hot springs being within view of ...
, the ''shōgun'' would always purify his body here.
Wakaejima
During 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 ...
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 ...
was busy with trading ships, but its shallowness made indispensable the use of
barges
A barge is typically a flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and marine water environments. The first modern barges were pull ...
.
[Nihon Rekishi Chimei Taikei, "Wakaejma"] Also, accidents between ships were common and it was therefore decided to build a port. A priest named applied for permission from the shogunate to build an artificial port in the area, permission granted in 1232.
Much of the timber used to build Kamakura's best shrines passed through Wakaejima.
In its first form, the harbor functioned as both a breakwater and a wharf, and was built with large stones laid as a foundation, with smaller stones on top. It was later extended gradually and repaired several times until the end of 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 ...
, when it was abandoned.
References
Extra reading
*
*
Tomari Beach - Official Tokyo GuideBeaches in Japan*
* , Kamakura Shunshūsha, 2008 ;
{{coord, 35, 18, 30.30, N, 139, 32, 44.01, E, region:JP_type:landmark_scale:1500, display=title
Beaches of Japan
Kamakura, Kanagawa
Landforms of Kanagawa Prefecture