Kamakura Period
Japan's Kamakura period (1185–1333) was the first time a truly nonaristocratic regime held sway over the nation. Toward the end of the Heian period (794–1185), two warrior clans, the Taira (or Heike) and the Minamoto (or Genji), came to have increasing power, as various aristocratic and imperial factions came to depend on them for protection. The Taira wielded great influence from 1156 until 1185, when they were defeated by the Minamoto in the Battle of Dannoura, but the more powerful they became, the more they divorced themselves from their military roots, adopting the habits and lifestyle of the court nobles. The Minamoto did not make that mistake, and their rule marked a new cultural and political age.
In 1192 Yoritomo had himself appointed Seiitaishogun (Barbarian-quelling Generalissimo), or shogun, by the emperor, and proceeded to establish a military government (bakufu) in Kamakura, some 400 kilometers away from the imperial capital in Kyoto. Minamoto control of the bakufu ended with Yoritomo, however: After his death, the Hojo family, natal family of Yoritomo's wife, established themselves as regents for the Minamoto shoguns, thereby usurping control.
Although the civil (imperial) government continued to exist during the Kamakura period, it was the military government that held real power in terms of land management, taxation, and policing. During the Heian period, more and more land had become exempt from taxation by the civil government; the Kamakura bakufu assigned a steward to all such estates and saw that the bakufu received a portion of the wealth from each. It also assigned constables to each estate to marshal the estate in times of conflict.
Culturally, the Kamakura period saw the flowering of popular, faith-oriented, sects of Buddhism. Pure Land Buddhism, which taught that the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amida could be attained through the recitation of the Buddha's name, became very popular as it promised relatively easy salvation for all. True Pure Land, introduced by the monk Shinran (1173– 1262) in 1224 as an offshoot of Pure Land, simplified matters further by requiring only one such recitation, if made sincerely. The monk Nichiren (1222–1282) ascribed the same benefits to recitation of praise for the Lotus Sutra and denigrated other forms of Buddhism as false religion. Two schools of Zen Buddhism (in Chinese, Chan Buddhism), Soto and Rinzai, were also introduced during the Kamakura period and were adopted by the warrior class, who found their self-discipline and asceticism in keeping with warrior values. With Zen came the habit of drinking tea and the beginnings of the Japanese tea ceremony. In literature, war romances were popular, as were oral recitations of the Heike monogatari (Tale of the Heike), the story of the rise and fall of the Taira clan. The Buddhist theme of the evanescence of all things (mujo) permeates the tale.
Further Reading
Hall, John Whitney. (1970) Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times. New York: Delacorte Press.
Hane, Mikiso. (1972) Japan, A Historical Survey. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Maas, Jeffrey P. (1999) Yoritomo and the Founding of the First Bakufu: The Origins of Dual Government in Japan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Sansom, George. (1958) A History of Japan to 1334. Stanford: CA: Stanford University Press.
Yamamura, Kozo, ed. (1990) Medieval Japan. Vol. 3 of The Cambridge History of Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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