The Kamakura period was the period during which the Kamakura shogunate ruled from the city of Kamakura, in the Kantô region.
The period is generally said to begin in 1185 with the Minamoto clan victory in the Genpei War, marking the end of the Taira clan's political control; others cite 1192 as marking the beginning of the Kamakura period, as this was the year in which the Kamakura shogunate was officially established, ending the period of Kyoto (aka Heian) being the sole center of authority. The period ends in 1333, with the fall of the Kamakura shogunate.
The Kamakura period marks a significant stage in the development of samurai rule. While the Taira clan held considerable power from the 1150s-1180s, they did so from within the Imperial court; the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate marks the first time that samurai rule, operating quite separately from the Imperial court, is asserted as a significant authority in itself. The Kamakura shogunate was never as strong as the Ashikaga or Tokugawa shogunates which succeeded it, however; it largely ruled over only the samurai, while the Court continued to govern the aristocracy, temples & shrines, and the common people. Further, the shogunate's authority did not extend over the entire archipelago, and there were many regions where shogunal authority was weak or non-existent. Shogunal retainers are believed to have numbered only around 2,000 in the period from 1185-1221, and around 3,000 afterwards. The total population of the archipelago may have been around 9.75 million in 1300.[1]
Numerous significant religious developments took place in the period. The monk Nichiren established and spread his Lotus Sect school of Buddhism in the 13th century; figures such as Ippen and Kûya spread their teachings during this time, too, with a variety of popular and millenarian Buddhist movements, including the Ji sect, emerging as well. Much of these developments were tied into a widespread belief that the decline and eventual fall of the Heian period marked the entry into the period of mappô (lit. "end of the law"), a period in the grand cosmic cycle during which the religious laws governing the universe begin to fall out of order, and the ability to achieve salvation wanes. Worship in Amida Buddha, including especially belief in the practice of nenbutsu, grew considerably in popularity at this time, as popular movements grew asserting that one needed not devote oneself fully to a proper Buddhist/monastic life of meditation, restraint, prayer, and ritual practice in order to achieve salvation, but rather that one could be saved by Amida, simply for chanting his name and expressing true faith.
Zen also became considerably more central and well-established in this period, as it received patronage from the Hôjô clan, regents to the shoguns. And along with the growth of Zen came the growth of a number of Chinese cultural practices, including appreciation of tea; Zen temples also became centers of Chinese scholarship, calligraphy, and Zen painting.
Though the Minamoto clan founded the Kamakura shogunate, and the city, its control of the shogunate lasted only very briefly. After the first shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo, died in 1199, his widow Hôjô Masako named her father Hôjô Tokiyori regent (shikken), and seized control over the shogunate. For the remainder of the period, the shoguns were largely pawns, or puppets, of the Hôjô, who exercised true political power. After the third Kamakura shogun, Minamoto no Sanetomo, was assassinated in 1219, the Minamoto line of shoguns ended. The shogunate survived an attempted coup two years later, known as the Jôkyû War, but for the remainder of the period, Imperial princes and members of the court aristocratic Kujô family served as shogun.
The Mongol Empire launched two invasions of Japan, in 1274 and 1281. Though both were unsuccessful, gaining no territory at all beyond landfall, efforts to defend against these invasions - and, in particular, efforts to strengthen preparations for defense against a third invasion which never came - severely weakened the shogunate. When Emperor Go-Daigo raised forces against the shogunate in 1333, in an effort to restore Imperial power, it fell fairly quickly. This Kemmu Restoration did not last long, however, as Go-Daigo's lead general, Ashikaga Takauji, turned on him and established his own shogunate, the Ashikaga shogunate, in 1336, marking the beginning of the Muromachi period.
| Preceded by: Heian Period |
Kamakura Period 1185-1333 |
Succeeded by: Muromachi Period |
References
- ↑ Robert Tignor, Benjamin Elman, et al, Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, vol B, Fourth Edition, W.W. Norton & Co (2014), 410.