The Kamakura Shogunate: Japan's First Samurai Government, and the Shrine, Great Buddha, and Zen Temples It Left in Kamakura

The Kamakura period usually runs from around 1185 to the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, about 150 years. It was the first time samurai held power over the whole country, and the political center moved from Kyoto to a small seaside town in the Kanto region ringed by hills on three sides. Kamakura is now about an hour from Tokyo Station on the JR Yokosuka Line, and nearly all of its avenues, shrines, Zen temples, and its Great Buddha go back to this period.

Why Kamakura

In 1180, in the middle of the war between the Minamoto and Taira clans, Minamoto no Yoritomo made Kamakura his base. Hills close it in on the north, east, and west, Sagami Bay lies to the south, and the only ways in were a few passes cut through the hills (kiridoshi), so it was easy to defend. His Minamoto ancestors had also held land here.

After entering Kamakura, Yoritomo moved a shrine that his ancestor Minamoto no Yoriyoshi had brought from Iwashimizu Hachimangu in Kyoto in 1063 to its present site. This is Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, and he made it the center of his plan for the town. Wakamiya Oji, the straight approach avenue from the beach to the shrine, is said to have been completed in 1182, and about 500 m of its raised central walkway, the Dankazura, still remains, lined with cherry trees in spring. Entry to the shrine grounds is free.

Source: Tsurugaoka Hachimangu.

How the shogunate worked

With his base set, Yoritomo built a system of loyalty tied to land. The shogun guaranteeing a warrior’s land was called go-on (favor), and the warrior fighting and serving for the shogun was called hoko (service), and this bond was the backbone of the shogunate.

In 1185 Yoritomo won the right to appoint shugo (military governors responsible for order) and jito (land stewards who managed estates and collected taxes) in each province, and many textbooks take this year as the start of the Kamakura shogunate. His appointment as seii taishogun, shogun, in 1192 is the other common starting point. After Yoritomo died in 1199, real power passed to the Hojo, the family of his wife Hojo Masako, who ruled as regents (shikken) to the shogun.

In 1221 the retired emperor Go-Toba raised an army against the shogunate in the Jokyu War. The shogunate’s forces took Kyoto and won, then set up the Rokuhara Tandai office in Kyoto to watch the court, fixing the upper hand of warrior rule. In 1232 the regent Hojo Yasutoki issued the Goseibai Shikimoku, 51 articles based on practice since Yoritomo’s time and Japan’s first code of law for the warrior class.

Zen temples and the new Buddhism of Kamakura

The period was just as active in religion. Two Zen schools took root, Rinzai brought by Eisai and Soto brought by Dogen, while Honen’s Jodo school, Shinran’s Jodo Shinshu, and Nichiren’s school also appeared. Together they are called Kamakura New Buddhism, and most of Japan’s main Buddhist schools today began in this period.

Zen was the school most closely tied to the samurai. Kencho-ji in Kita-Kamakura was founded in 1253 by the fifth regent, Hojo Tokiyori, with the Southern Song Chinese monk Lanxi Daolong as its first abbot. It is described as Japan’s first full Zen training monastery and ranks first among the Five Mountains of Kamakura. Adult admission is JPY 500. Nearby Engaku-ji was founded in 1282 by the eighth regent, Hojo Tokimune, with Wuxue Zuyuan, another monk from Southern Song China, as its first abbot. One purpose was to mourn the dead on both sides of the Mongol invasions. Adult admission is JPY 500, from 8:30 to 16:30 (16:00 from December to February). Both are within walking distance of JR Kita-Kamakura Station.

Sources: Engaku-ji, Kencho-ji, Kanagawa Tourism Association: Kencho-ji.

The open-air Great Buddha

Kamakura’s best-known sight is the Great Buddha at Kotoku-in in Hase. Casting began in 1252 on this bronze seated Amida Buddha. It originally sat inside a hall, but the hall was later lost to disaster, and the statue has sat in the open for centuries since.

Admission is JPY 300 for adults, and another JPY 50 lets you step inside the statue, where you can see how the bronze was cast in sections and joined. The grounds are open from 8:00 to 17:30 from April to September and 8:00 to 17:00 from October to March, and the interior from 8:00 to 16:30 all year. It is about a 7-minute walk from Hase Station on the Enoden line.

Source: Kotoku-in (Kamakura Great Buddha).

The Mongol invasions and the fall of the shogunate

Soon after the Great Buddha was cast, the shogunate faced its biggest outside threat. The Yuan dynasty sent invasion fleets against northern Kyushu twice, in the Bun’ei campaign of 1274 and the Koan campaign of 1281. Both failed in the face of storms and samurai resistance, and later generations called the storm kamikaze, the divine wind.

Victory brought no new land, however, so the warriors who fought received little reward. Divided inheritance was also shrinking samurai holdings, and resentment of the Hojo grew. In 1333 Emperor Go-Daigo called for the shogunate’s overthrow, Nitta Yoshisada attacked Kamakura from the Inamuragasaki side, and the regent Hojo Takatoki and his clan took their own lives at Tosho-ji, ending the Kamakura shogunate. The Tosho-ji site is a national historic site, and a cave tomb in the nearby cliff is known as the Harakiri Yagura. After the short Kenmu Restoration, Ashikaga Takauji founded the Muromachi shogunate in Kyoto, and the political center returned to Kyoto.

Common misunderstandings

Last, a few points that are often confused.

The first is when the Kamakura shogunate began. Students used to memorize 1192, but many textbooks now use 1185, when appointing military governors and land stewards gave real nationwide control. Both dates have their reasons.

The second is mixing up the Kamakura and Nara Great Buddhas. The Great Buddha of Todai-ji in Nara was consecrated in 752 in the Nara period and sits inside a hall. Kamakura’s is from the Kamakura period, sits outdoors, and is somewhat smaller.

The third is thinking the capital was in Kamakura. The emperor and court stayed in Kyoto throughout, and Kamakura was the seat of the shogunate, giving the country two centers, one in the east and one in the west.

The fourth is treating the divine wind as the only reason for victory. Storms did great damage to the Yuan fleets, but the defensive stone wall built by Kyushu samurai, the Genko Borui, and their stubborn resistance mattered just as much, and parts of the wall still survive along the coast of Fukuoka City.

Useful terms

• Kamakura bakufu: the Kamakura shogunate
• Shikken: regent to the shogun
• Goseibai Shikimoku: the 1232 warrior law code
• Kamakura Gozan: the Five Mountains of Kamakura
• Genko: the Mongol invasions

References

• Tsurugaoka Hachimangu
• Kencho-ji
• Engaku-ji
• Kotoku-in (Kamakura Great Buddha)
• Kanagawa Tourism Association: Kencho-ji