Editing Kamakura (section)

=== Kamakura period ===
{{main article|Kamakura period}}

[[File:Minamoto no Yoritomo.jpg|thumb|Portrait traditionally believed to be of [[Minamoto no Yoritomo]], but now believed to be of [[Ashikaga Tadayoshi]]<ref>[http://shogun-yashiki.blogspot.com/2008/11/weapons-fighting-techniques-of-samurai.html Weapons & Fighting Techniques Of The Samurai Warrior 1200–1877 AD]. Retrieved June 24, 2009.</ref>]]
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, {{transliteration|ja|[[jidaigeki]]}} TV dramas, [[Kabuki]] plays, songs, [[manga]] 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]], 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]] 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 {{Nihongo||征夷大将軍|Sei-i Taishōgun}} in 1192.<ref name="takahashi2">Takahashi (2005:2)</ref> 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.<ref name="takahashi2" /> Even after the consolidation of the shogunate's power in the east, the Emperor continued to rule the country, particularly its west.<ref name="takahashi2" /> However, it is undeniable that Kamakura had a certain autonomy and that it had surpassed the technical capital of Japan politically, culturally and economically.<ref name="takahashi2" /> The shogunate even reserved for itself an area in Kyoto called {{Nihongo|Rokuhara|六波羅}} where lived its representatives, who were there to protect its interests.<ref name="takahashi2" />
[[File:Okura Bakufu Kamakura.jpg|thumb|left|The [[stele]] on the spot where [[Minamoto no Yoritomo|Yoritomo's]] {{transliteration|ja|[[Ōkura Bakufu]]}} used to stand]]
In 1179, Yoritomo married [[Hōjō Masako]], 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]]). The [[stele]] on the spot reads:

{{poemquote|737 years ago, in 1180, Minamoto no Yoritomo built his mansion here. Consolidated his power, he later ruled from home, and his government was therefore called {{Nihongo|[[Ōkura Bakufu]]|大蔵幕府}}. He was succeeded by his sons Yoriie and Sanetomo, and this place remained the seat of the government for 46 years until 1225, when his wife Hōjō Masako died. It was then transferred to {{Nihongo|Utsunomiya Tsuji|宇津宮辻}}.
Erected in March 1917 by the Kamakurachō Seinenkai}}

In 1185, his forces, commanded by his younger brother [[Minamoto no Yoshitsune]], vanquished the Taira and in 1192 he received from Emperor [[Go-Toba]] the title of {{transliteration|ja|Sei-i Taishōgun}}.<ref name="KHKP" /> 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 [[Minamoto no Noriyori|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.<ref>See article [[Tomb of Minamoto no Yoritomo]]</ref> He was succeeded by his 17-year-old son [[Minamoto no Yoriie]] under the regency of his maternal grandfather [[Hōjō Tokimasa]]. A long and bitter fight ensued in which entire clans like the [[Hatakeyama clan|Hatakeyama]], the [[Hiki Yoshikazu|Hiki]], and the [[Wada Yoshimori|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]] clan and was regularly appointed {{transliteration|ja|shōgun}} in 1202 but by that time, real power had already fallen into the hands of the Hōjō clan.<ref name="KHKP" /> Yoriie plotted to take back his power, but failed and was assassinated on July 17, 1204.<ref name="KHKP" /> His six-year-old first son [[Minamoto no Ichiman|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 (Minamoto no Yoshinari)|Kugyō]]. From then on all power would belong to the Hōjō, and the {{transliteration|ja|shōgun}} 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.

[[File:Mitsuuroko.svg|thumb|The [[Hōjō clan|Hōjō family]] [[Mon (crest)|crest]], ubiquitous in Kamakura]]
Yoritomo's second son and third {{transliteration|ja|shōgun}} [[Minamoto no Sanetomo]] 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 biloba|ginkgo]] tree whose trunk still stood at [[Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū]] until it was uprooted by a storm in the early hours of March 10, 2010.<ref name="KHKP" /> 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]] dynasty who had created it in Kamakura had ended.<ref name="KHKP">[http://www.kcn-net.org/e_kama_history/history/history2.htm Kamakura: History & Historic Sites – The Kamakura Period], the Kamakura Citizen Net, retrieved on April 27, 2008</ref>

In 1293, a [[1293 Kamakura earthquake|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]] destroyed it in 1333 at the [[Siege of Kamakura (1333)|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 {{transliteration|ja|[[gokenin]]}}) were allowed to become ''de facto'' owners of the land they administered, coupled to the custom that all {{transliteration|ja|gokenin}} 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,<ref name="irws">[http://irows.ucr.edu/research/citemp/citemtoc.htm 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]] by 1200 AD. Yet, despite Kamakura's annihilation of Kyoto-based political and military power at the [[Battle of Dan-no-ura]] in 1185, and the failure of the Emperor to free himself from Kamakura's control during the [[Jōkyū War]], Takahashi (2005) has questioned whether Kamakura's nationwide political hegemony actually existed.<ref name="takahashi2" /> Takahashi claims that if Kamakura ruled the [[Kantō]], not only was the Emperor in fact still the ruler of [[Kansai region|Kansai]], but during this period the city was in many ways politically and administratively still under the ancient capital of [[Kyoto]].<ref name="takahashi2" /> Kamakura was simply a rival center of political, economic and cultural power in a country that had Kyoto as its capital.<ref name="takahashi2" />

==== Nichiren in Kamakura ====
[[File:Ruokoji Katase Nichiren Execution Ground.jpg|thumb|The monument on the spot at [[Ryūkō-ji (Fujisawa)|Ryūkō-ji]] where [[Nichiren]] was saved from execution]]
Kamakura is known among Buddhists for having been the cradle of [[Nichiren Buddhism]] during the 13th century. Founder [[Nichiren]] was not a native; he was born in [[Awa Province (Chiba)|Awa Province]], in today's [[Chiba Prefecture]]. But it was only natural for a preacher to come here because the city was the political centre of the country at the time.<ref name="Iso258">Mutsu (1995/06: 258–271)</ref> Nichiren settled down in a straw hut in the Matsubagayatsu (literally {{translation|pine needle valley}})<ref name="yatsu">The ending "ヶ谷", common in place names and usually read "-gaya", in Kamakura is normally pronounced "-gayatsu", as in Shakadōgayatsu, Ōgigayatsu, and Matsubagayatsu.</ref> 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.<ref name="Iso258" /> 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 {{Nihongo||立正安国論|Risshō Ankoku Ron}}, or {{gloss|Treatise on Peace and Righteousness}}, and that legend says he was rescued and fed by monkeys. Kamakura is also where he preached.<ref name="Iso258" />

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.<ref name="Iso258" /> (However Hosshō-ji in [[Zushi]]'s Hisagi district makes the same claim, and with a better historical basis.)<ref>[http://www.nichiren-shu.org/newsletter/nichirenshu_news/Nichiren147e.pdf Shakyamuni Buddha and His Supporters], Nichirenshu.org, retrieved on May 25, 2008</ref><ref>[http://www.j-area2.com/area/shonan/hosshoji.html Photo of Hosshō-ji's gate with its sculpted white monkeys]</ref> 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 {{transliteration|ja|Risshō Ankoku Ron}}.<ref name="Iso258" />{{pb}} Nearby [[Myōhō–ji]] (also called Koke-dera or {{gloss|Temple of Moss}}), a much smaller temple, was erected in an area where Nichiren had his home for 19 years.<ref name="Iso258" /> The third Nichiren temple in Nagoe, [[Chōshō-ji]], also claims to lie on the very spot where it all started.
* The {{Nihongo|Nichiren Tsujiseppō Ato|日蓮聖人辻説法跡}} on Komachi Ōji in the [[Komachi (Kanagawa)|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.<ref name="Iso258" />
* The former execution ground at Katase's [[Ryūkō-ji (Fujisawa)|Ryūkō-ji]] where Nichiren was about to be beheaded (an event known to Nichiren's followers as the {{Nihongo|Tatsunokuchi Persecution|龍ノ口法難}}), and where he was miraculously saved when thunder struck the executioner.<ref name="Iso258" /> Nichiren had been condemned to death for having written the {{transliteration|ja|Risshō Ankoku Ron}}.<ref name="KOT46">Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008: 46)</ref> Every year, on September 12, Nichiren devotees gather to celebrate the anniversary of the miracle.<ref>Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008: 186)</ref>
* The {{Nihongo|[[Shichirigahama#Nichiren's pine tree|Kesagake no Matsu]]|袈裟掛けの松}}, the pine tree on the roads between Harisuribashi and Inamuragasaki from which Nichiren hanged his {{transliteration|ja|[[kesa (clothing)|kesa]]}} (a Buddhist [[Stole (vestment)|stole]]) while on his way to Ryūkō-ji.<ref name="KOT46" /> The original pine tree however died long ago and, after having been replaced many times, now no longer exists.<ref name="KOT46" />

====Fall of the Kamakura shogunate====
{{main article|Siege of Kamakura (1333)}}

[[File:Tosho-ji-Hojo Family temple site.jpg|thumb|This field is the former site of [[Tōshō-ji]], the [[Hōjō clan|Hōjō family]] temple. In 1333, the Hōjō clan committed mass suicide here.]]
On July 3, 1333,<ref>Gregorian date obtained directly from the original Nengō ([[Genkō (second)|Genkō]] 3, 21st day of the 5th month) using [https://uni-tuebingen.de/geschichte-japans/nengo_calc.htm Nengocalc] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930014735/http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/geschichte-japans/nengo_calc.htm |date=September 30, 2007 }}</ref> warlord [[Nitta Yoshisada]], 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.<ref name="Iso">Mutsu (1995/06: 19–40)</ref>

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]], whose ruins have been found in today's [[Ōmachi (Kanagawa)|Ōmachi]]. Almost the entire clan vanished at once, the city was sacked and many temples were burned.{{efn|See for example the article [[An'yō-in (Kamakura)|An'yō-in]]}} Many simple citizens imitated the Hōjō, and an estimated total of over 6,000 died on that day of their own hand.<ref name="Iso" /> 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.