Kamakura bakufu
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Kamakura bakafu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Kamakura shogunate (鎌倉幕府) was a feudal military dictatorship ruled by the shoguns of the Minamoto family from 1185 to 1333 AD. Based in Kamakura, Japan, this period draws its name from the capital and is known as the Kamakura period.
Shogunate
Bakufu (幕府) originally described the dwelling and household of a shogun, but in time it came to be generally used in Japanese to describe the system of government of a feudal military dictatorship, exercised by the shoguns (literally "tent government", meaning a military rule), and this is the meaning that has been adopted in English, known as the shogunate.
The system of bakufu was originally established under the Kamakura bakufu by Minamoto no Yoritomo. The military wing of the government came to dominate the civil (imperial) government, so that while the Emperors of Japan still technically led the government, all practical (and especially military) power rested with the shogun and the daimyo. The system was essentially "feudal" in nature, with lesser territorial lords pledging their allegiance to greater ones. Samurai were rewarded for their loyalty with land, which was in turn handed down and divided among their sons. The loyalty that held together this system of government was reinforced by close ties of male love between samurai and their apprentices, and the shoguns as well all took lovers from among the ranks of the samurai, a practice known as shudo, the way of the young, or nanshoku, male color.
Three primary bakufu periods are usually identified, each centered around a family which tended to dominate the position of shogun during that regime. In the Japanese language, the time period of each regime is named after the capital of the bakufu. The Ashikaga and Tokugawa bakufu can also be (and usually is) named in this fashion.
Kamakura Shogunate
After the defeat of the Taira clan in the Genpei War in 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the emperor and became the dictator and de facto ruler of Japan. He established a feudal system of government based in Kamakura in which the military, the samurai, assumed all political power while the Emperors of Japan and the aristocracy in Kyoto remained the figurehead de jure rulers. In 1192 Yoritomo was awarded the title of Seii Taishogun by the emperor and the political system he developed with a succession of shogun at the head became known as a bakufu (tent government) or Shogunate. From this point in history, all shogun that headed shogunates were by tradition descendants of the Minamoto princes, the sons of emperor Seiwa, and the title passed generation to generation to the eldest sons.
Before the establishment of the Kamakura bakufu, civil power in Japan was primarily held by the ruling Emperors and their regents. Military affairs were handled under the auspices of the civil government. However, after defeating the Taira clan in the Genpei War, Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power in 1185 and became the dictator and the de facto ruler of the country. He asserted the primacy of the military side of the government and was given the title of shogun in 1192 while the system of government he established became formalized as the bakufu. The Japanese provinces became semi-autonomous under the daimyo, although in theory they were still obligated to the central government through their allegiance to the shogun.
After Yoritomo's death, his widow Hojo Masako essentially usurped the real ruling power from his Minamoto clan to her own Hojo clan. The Minamoto remained the titular shoguns, with the Hojo holding the real power - thus ruling through a puppet shogun and a titular emperor. The Emperor attempted to reverse the situation in a 1221 rebellion (called jokyu incident), but failed to wrest power away from the shogunate. A second attempt was made by the Imperial court in 1331, and was much more successful, particularly as the Kamakura's most powerful general, Ashikaga Takauji, chose to side with the Emperor. The Kamakura bakufu came to an end in 1333 with the defeat and destruction of the Hojo clan. This triumph was, however, short-lived, as Ashikaga Takauji promptly assumed the position of shogun himself, establishing the Ashikaga shogunate.
- Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199) (r. 1192-1199)
- Minamoto no Yoriie (1182-1204) (r. 1202-1203)
- Minamoto no Sanetomo (1192-1219) (r. 1203-1219)
- Kujo Yoritsune (1218-1286) (r. 1226-1244)
- Kujo Yoritsugu (1239-1256) (r. 1244-1252)
- Prince Munetaka (1242-1274) (r. 1252-1266)
- Prince Koreyasu (1264-1326) (r. 1266-1289)
- Prince Hisaaki (1276-1328) (r. 1289-1308)
- Prince Morikuni (1301-1333) (r. 1308-1333)
The Hojo clan
The Hojo clan (北条氏) in the History of Japan is a family of regents of the Kamakura Shogunate. The family had an actual power of governing than Kamakura shoguns, who were merely legal symbols.
Hojo Tokimasa helped Minamoto no Yoritomo, a son-in-law and after the death of Yoritomo, became a regent, gaining a real power in the Shogunate.
- Hojo Tokimasa (1138-1215) (r. 1203-1205)
- Hojo Yoshitoki (1163-1224) (r. 1205-1224)
- Hojo Yasutoki (1183-1242) (r. 1224-1242)
- Hojo Tsunetoki (1224-1246) (r. 1242-1246)
- Hojo Tokiyori (1227-1263) (r. 1246-1256)
- Hojo Nagatoki (1229-1264) (r. 1256-1264)
- Hojo Masamura (1205-1273) (r. 1264-1268)
- Hojo Tokimune (1251-1284) (r. 1268-1284)
- Hojo Sadatoki (1271-1311) (r. 1284-1301)
- Hojo Morotoki (1275-1311) (r. 1301-1311)
- Hojo Munenobu (1259-1312) (r. 1311-1312)
- Hojo Hirotoki (1279-1315) (r. 1312-1315)
- Hojo Mototoki (?-1333) (r. 1315)
- Hojo Takatoki (1303-1333) (r. 1316-1326)
- Hojo Sadaaki (1278-1333) (r. 1326)
- Hojo Moritoki (?-1333) (r. 1327-1333)
Aside from regents above, those who played an important role among the Hojo clan are: * Hojo Sanetoki
Mongols
Kamikaze (神風 from Kami - "god" and kaze - "wind") means 'divine wind' in Japanese. It refers to the typhoon which saved Japan from a Mongol invasion fleet in 1281. The Mongols attempted two unsuccessful invasions of Japan. The first invasion fleet was utterly destroyed by a typhoon (kamikaze). The Mongolian fleets survived the typhoon the second time but the landed troops, starved because their provisions had been lost in the typhoon, were annihilated by Japanese infantry and samurai.
Kamakura period
The period marks the governance of the Kamakura Shogunate that was officially established in 1192 by the first Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo.
The Kamakura period ended in 1333 with the destruction of the shogunate and the short reestablishment of imperial rule under the Emperor Go-Daigo by Ashikaga Takauji, Nitta Yoshisada, and Kusunoki Masashige.
The Kamakura period is also said to be the beginning of the Japanese Middle Ages which also includes the Muromachi period and the beginning of the Japanese Feudal Period which lasted until the Meiji Restoration.