KAMAKURA - RISE AND FALL OF THE SHOGUNS Episode 4. - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

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Although the Kamakura Shogunate lasted a century and a half,
creating a medieval system of government that lasted until the 19th century,
the downfall of Kamakura as the capital has its roots in the aftermath of the death
of the very first ruling Shogun.
As he approached adulthood, a time when he would
assume power for himself, the second shogun, Yoriie, was sidelined,
and eventually exiled, by the Hojo family.
And he was found, murdered in the bath, in his place of exile, in the Izu peninsula.
Yoriie had a son, Kazuhata. But he never became shogun,
because the Hojo family killed him,
his mother, and his mother's family, the Hiki family.
And the only survivor of this slaughter of the Hiki family, and the rightful shogun
was Yoshimoto Hiki. And he came here, and built this temple, and this tomb,
as a memorial, to his murdered family.
Although the Hojo installed Yoriie's younger brother,
he would prove to be the last Minamoto ruler...
On a bleak and snowy midwinter night in 1219, the third Minamoto shogun, Sanetomo
was leaving a Shinto ceremony, at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine,
when a figure, brandishing a sword leapt out at him, from behind one of the ancient gingko trees,
and decapitated the last Minamoto shogun.
The assassin was Kugyo, son of the second shogun,
who shouted 'I am Kugyo, avenging the death of my father!'.
The deaths of the second and third shoguns left power in the hands
of the Hojo clan, who ruled with the backing of the samurai, whose support
the Hojo had carefully solicited, nurtured, and gained.
Yet after these early power struggles, the Hojo, with the backing of the samurai brought
peace, justice, and security to Japan. And the Kamakura Shogunate saw off
all opposition, at home and abroad.
From the time of the zenith of Hojo power,
just after the Mongol wars, the Shogunate began to neglect the samurai though.
And this would prove to be a disastrous mistake. For when it became clear that
the Mongols were never returning, the samurai turned their attention and their resentment
towards Kamakura...
Episode 4: Sunset of the Shoguns - Kamakura's decline.
The Hojo lords of Kamakura, like their Minamoto predecessors were
patrons of Buddhism. But in the Hojo era, many new forms of Buddhism arose,
the most famous of which was Zen.
This Zen temple, Dentsu-ji, like many temples, carries the insignia of the Hojo family.
These Daruma dolls are named after Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism.
He was an Indian monk who traveled in China. And he preached that meditation
was the best way to reach enlightenment. And he believed it to such an extent that
it was said he sat facing a wall, meditating for 10 years, and lost the use
of his legs, his arms, and his eyes - that's why the dolls look like this.
So people buy these dolls and paint the eyes back in, hoping to get good luck
or have a dream come true. But don't paint both eyes in, mind - paint the last one in,
when your dream comes true.
This is the Daruma doll scrapheap. I guess most people's dreams came true,
who threw these dolls away...
Zen Buddhism appealed to the samurai, in ways that
earlier forms of Buddhism didn't,
with its emphasis on single-minded action, rather than esoteric abstraction.
Unlike earlier esoteric forms of Buddhism,
focused on our place in a cosmological structure, with exoteric planes,
Buddhas of this,
Buddhas of that,
Zen emphasized the necessity to take responsibility
for one's own enlightenment, and making sense of the material universe through one's own efforts.
To the samurai - these medieval men of action - Zen caught on like wildfire.
No town in the world - even Kyoto, even in China - is more synonymous now with Zen, than Kamakura.
Hojo Tokimune, the leader of the Shogunate during the Mongol wars
had gained courage and sustenance, from Zen, during the Mongol invasions and had
built a grand temple - Engaku-ji - to celebrate the final defeat of the Mongols.
But it was this insistence on the part of the Shogunate,
to reward temples and shrines, monks and priests, over samurai, that caused such a ruinous rift...
Suenaga Takezaki - a samurai - who had, by his own account, defended against,
repelled, and slaughtered Mongols, and manned the defenses for 20 more years,
in case they ever returned, went to Kamakura, taking with him a pictorial scroll,
depicting his valiant deeds...
Suenaga Takezaki asked the Shogunate to reward him - a loyal samurai - for his
decades of faithful service to the Shogunate and Japan.
But no reward was forthcoming, to Takezaki, or to any samurai.
The Shogunate, in placing credit for victory against the Mongols
squarely with the Kamikaze wind and the gods
only rewarded the temples and shrines whose monks and priests
had prayed for victory...
But this neglect of the samurai would prove to be disastrous, for the Kamakura Shogunate.
The Kamikaze wind may have caused havoc among the Mongol fleets,
but it was the samurai, who delivered the knockout blows.
What did they benefit?
Little, if anything.
Hojo Masako had rallied the samurai, in the early days of the Kamakura Shogunate.
But her later kinsmen would neglect them.
Samurai discontent was given shape by the rebellion of Go-Daigo, the emperor.
A coalition arose, between Go-Daigo and a warlord, Nitta Yoshisada -
a distant relation of the Minamoto - who both felt that the Hojo had no legitimacy,
and were usurpers of the Shogunate.
Ever since the Emperor Go-Toba's unsuccessful uprising against the Shogunate, in 1221,
the Hojo had kept a close eye on the imperial house - often deciding who succeeded who as emperor.
But in 1331, the first serious imperial uprising in over a century took place,
when the emperor Go-Daigo refused to step down, and rose in open revolt.
Like his predecessor Go-Toba, Go-Daigo's first rebellion failed, because as we've seen,
imperial forces were no match for samurai.
But this was a different age.
Go-Toba could never find enough disgruntled samurai - the warriors stayed loyal,
to Hojo Masako, and Kamakura.
But in Go-Daigo's time, there were plenty of disgruntled samurai...
Samurai resentment, on being neglected by the Hojo
was compounded, by the degenerate behavior of the Hojo leaders...
This schoolyard stands on the site,
where one of the most debauched acts of the decadent Hojo Takatoki,
the last ruler of Kamakura used to enact - for it was here
he would stage dog fights...
Disaster struck for the Shogunate, when its greatest general, Ashikaga Takauji,
switched sides, and placed his allegiance to the emperor.
And this rebellion against the Shogunate would gather pace,
for when Ashikaga Takauji liberated the Emperor Go-Daigo from his exile,
and marched together with him, on the imperial capital of Kyoto,
Nitta Yoshisada, a man who claimed kinship with the earlier Minamoto shoguns,
raised a force of over 40,000 samurai,
and headed for Kamakura...
And it was to this headland that Nitta Yoshisada came,
at the behest of Emperor Go-Daigo, and stood on the cape,
and looked out towards the shogun's capital, of Kamakura...
Yoshisada was within sight of the shogun's capital,
but as he was to find out, getting into the city itself was another proposition entirely...
These narrow passes, cut in the rocks, had served the Shogunate well,
for a century and a half and now
would thwart Nitta Yoshisada, as he tried to enter the city...
Despite vastly superior numbers, Nitta Yoshisada could not get into
Kamakura.
Time and time again, wave after wave of samurai, under Nitta Yoshisada attacked
the defenses - the narrow mountain passes - to the west, north, and east of Kamakura,
but time and time again, the Hojo defenders held firm...
Perhaps, as a kinsman of the Minamoto, Nitta Yoshisada was familiar
with the legend of Ichi no Tani, where the dashing general, Yoshitsune
had attacked the Taira stronghold, from the mountains, by drawing their attention
with a fake feint along the coast...
If Nitta Yoshisada did know this story,
he turned it on its head, because as he left the majority of his army,
to continue attacking the mountain passes into Kamakura, Yoshisada led a smaller force,
down from the hills, towards the coast,
at Inamuragasaki...
So Yoshisada came down from the well-defended western passes, here,
to Cape Inamuragasaki.
But of course he wouldn't be able to get around here, because
it's the Western Wall of Kamakura - it juts right out into the sea.
So to get around here, with 15,000 men would be impossible.
Or would it..?
Praying to the sun goddess, and offering up his sword,
and throwing it into the sea,
Yoshisada waited, to see what would happen next...
And what happened next was the tide started to go out, to a low level,
like nobody had ever seen before.
Yoshisada and his men seized the moment,
and waded around the cape...
As Yoshisada and his men came around the cape, there were Hojo warships,
stationed in the bay.
But Yoshisada's men stayed close to the shoreline,
and attacked Kamakura from the south...
This street was actually where the Kamakura Shogunate was located.
And this temple - Hokai-ji - was the headquarters of the Hojo family.
After running up Wakamiya Oji Dori, Yoshisada's army arrived here,
at the Hojo stronghold.
Takatoki and his men had already retreated,
so Yoshisada ordered that the Hojo stronghold be burned to the ground.
Takatoki, and the warriors who'd stayed faithful to him ran to the back of Tosho-ji temple,
to here - these caves, but realizing they were vastly outnumbered, maybe twenty-to-one,
and that there was no escape,
they took out their hara-kiri knives...
Yoshisada, and his invading army left the Hojo stronghold in flames, and ran up here,
past Tosho-ji temple, towards the caves...
When Yoshisada and his men arrived at the caves, they found...
870 dead samurai.
The Kamakura Shogunate was at an end.
Good to see that it's not just mock Beverly Hills mansions
that dot the streets of Kamakura.
You do get lovely streets like this,
that evoke a bygone time...
Having found streets and districts where Kamakura samurai used to live,
I developed something of a bee in my bonnet, and I thought "Ooh, I really must find
some actual samurai houses from the Kamakura period!" Well I'm glad I checked this book,
'An Introduction to Japanese Architecture' by David and Michiko Young, before I embarked
on what would have been a wild goose chase, because it informs me that
there are no samurai houses from the Kamakura period - not just in Kamakura, and its environs - not anywhere!
The fact that no Kamakura era samurai houses survive is an
indication of the conflicts and conflagrations that marked the end of the period.
But luckily, for posterity,
many Kamakura period temples can still be visited.
The samurai would build zen temples all over Kamakura
- fine, aesthetically pleasing gardens, and places where they could
perform the tea ceremony, to soothe their warrior spirits.
This temple, Hokoku-ji - the bamboo temple - was founded by two
powerful Kamakura warrior families: the Ashikaga; and the Uesugi family.
And both these families would have a continued and lasting impact on Kamakura,
and Japanese history - the first by bringing the period of Hojo rule to a close,
and founding a new dynasty of shoguns; and the second by bringing the
period of Kamakura's political importance to a close...
I'm wearing my Japan shirt, today - I'm in a stronghold of imperialist sympathy and sentiment.
This place is very 'deer' to me...
Although the Hojo stronghold was destroyed in 1333,
and with it, in Go-Daigo's hands, imperial power was restored,
for the first time in centuries, Takauji Ashikaga,
whose defection had brought about Go-Daigo's restoration and the downfall of the Shogunate
himself decided to make a play for power - capturing Prince Morinaga,
the son of Go-Daigo, and bringing him here, to the Ashikaga stronghold in East Kamakura,
passing him on to his kinsmen - who then held the prince hostage -
Ashikaga Takauji made a bid to be Shogun.
But it wasn't just the Ashikaga,
and loyalists of Go-Daigo who were in this fight. The son of the last Hojo regent
also tried to retake Kamakura. And when he invaded in July of 1335,
Prince Morinaga was killed, in the ensuing melee.
Go-Daigo's reign as ruling emperor didn't last long.
He was overthrown and sent into exile, by Ashikaga Takauji,
who began his own dynasty of shoguns.
Imperial forces and samurai, loyal to Go-Daigo carried on the fight bravely,
and cleverly, for the next 60 years - but by that time, the Emperor Go-Daigo,
and Takauji Ashikaga were long dead.
And Takauji didn't stay in Kamakura long - he moved the Shogunate
to Kyoto, to better control the puppet emperors that he installed there.
But Takauji did leave behind power in Kamakura, to his own son who became governor...
During the period of the governors, the five greatest Zen temples
of Kamakura were officially ranked: here in the north of the city,
(1) Kencho-ji,
(2) Engaku-ji,
and across the mountain behind me,
(3) Jufuku-ji
- the place where Yoritomo's father resided - and where the temple Jufuku-ji was built,
by Masako, in memory of her husband, the first shogun,
and (4) Jochi-ji,
and in the east of Kamakura, the stronghold of the Ashikaga clan,
the fifth of Kamakura's five great Zen temples,
(5) Jomyo-ji.
The Ashikaga governors of Kamakura formally ranked the five greatest temples in the city
as the 'Kamakura Go-zan'.
And when the Ashikaga governors' kinsmen, the Ashikaga shoguns,
moved to Kyoto, they took Zen with them, to spectacular effect...
And so, the Ashikaga dynasty moved the Shogunate
from Kamakura, to the Muromachi district of north-west Kyoto. And it was here,
they oversaw and enabled a cultural and artistic zenith in Japanese history -
an architectural golden age - literally.
Kinkaku-ji.
But while the Ashikaga shoguns were turning Kyoto into the artistic capital of Japan, elsewhere,
they were losing their grip. War broke out in all parts of Japan even spilling onto
the streets of Kyoto. And while the Ashikaga kept control of Kyoto, just,
huge swathes of Japan, including Kamakura, were up for grabs...
And here, at Zuisen-ji temple, can be told the story of the second downfall,
of Kamakura...
Even the governors of Kamakura themselves - kinsmen of the shoguns -
made their own play for power, defying the authority of the Shogunate, and trying to
reinstate Kamakura, not only as capital of the East, but as capital of the Shogunate once again.
But the plans and dreams of the governors were thwarted, by the powerful Uesugi clan
- a Kamakura warrior family who, acting as Shogun's deputies
first forced the governor of Kamakura, Mochiuji, to commit suicide in 1439,
and then, in 1445, driving his son, Nariuji - the last governor of Kamakura - into exile...
Kamakura became what it had been seven centuries before -
nothing more than a fishing village...
Kamakura lost any semblance of political importance, and not long after
Japan was wracked, by a century of bitter civil wars.
This was the age of the warlord,
and of the castle...
During this century of ruinous civil wars, Kyoto was almost completely destroyed.
But Kamakura, and the East were spared the worst ravages of these wars,
because at Odawara, 30 miles west along the coast from Kamakura,
a new, powerful family arose - a new Hojo family.
And from their stronghold in Odawara,
they kept Kamakura and the surrounding domains safe and peaceful for a century.
And they administered Kamakura from their castle, Tamanawa-jo,
on the northern borders of Kamakura city, overlooking the Tokaido Highway.
And while this second Hojo family kept relative peace in the east,
elsewhere, it was turmoil, with warlord pitted against warlord.
Two of the most famous of these warlords - Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin - were at odds for decades,
vying for power, by fair means or foul,
until one day, Takeda hit upon an idea, to finish his rival Uesugi, once and for all,
and he hired a band of ninjas...
While most of the ninjas created a diversion, for which they paid with their lives,
the one remaining ninja
crept, into Uesugi's castle...
The last surviving ninja that Takeda had sent,
having got into Uesugi's castle undetected, climbed into the drains,
crawled towards Uesugi's living quarters, and waited for his lord's mortal enemy...
to answer nature's call...
Eventually, after a hundred years of bloodshed,
betrayal, and subterfuge, a series of powerful warlords came along,
to finally begin the process of reunifying Japan...
The Ashikaga shoguns in Kyoto,
powerless to stop this century of bloodshed were finally dismissed,
by a mighty warlord called Oda Nobunaga.
But he himself was caught up in the cycle of violence.
However, his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, from his power base in Osaka
finally brought peace to Japan.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi brought virtually all of Japan under his control,
including the Hojo stronghold here at Odawara,
which surrendered to him, when he came down from the mountains, behind me.
Because of their comparatively humble origins, neither Nobunaga nor Hideyoshi
could or would claim the title of Shogun.
But their successor, Tokugawa Ieyasu,
who completed the reunification of Japan, claimed he was related,
to Minamoto no Yoritomo.
This unassuming road below me is 'National Route 1',
which in medieval times was called 'The Tokaido Highway',
And it linked the western cities of Osaka,
and the imperial capital of Kyoto,
to the shoguns' capitals, here in the East - first Kamakura,
and later, the capital of the Tokugawa, Edo,
which is about 30 miles to the north-east, along this road...
The Tokugawa family - the last dynasty of shoguns,
set up their headquarters at the mighty fortress of Edo Castle.
Edo Castle, the stronghold of these new Tokugawa shoguns, was the
largest fortress in the world. And by 1700, the city that grew up around it
had a population of over a million.
To keep potential opposition suppressed,
the Tokugawa Shogunate compelled all regional lords to attend Edo every two years,
and in the alternate years that they did not attend, their families
had to stay here, in Edo, as 'guests' of the Shogun.
These valleys, hills, and mountains run the length of the Miura peninsula.
I'm on the east side - over the hills to the west, is Kamakura.
I'm climbing up these valleys to the top to visit
a monument to a samurai, who was once lord of this domain.
But no ordinary samurai.
A blue-eyed samurai.
In 1600,
a ship from a distant land was washed onto the shores of Japan, in a storm.
On this Dutch ship was an English navigator -
a man from Kent - called William Adams. A remarkable and talented man,
who became a Foreign Affairs adviser and friend to the Shogun, Ieyasu.
Ieyasu regarded William Adams with such high esteem and affection,
that he rewarded him with this domain, Hemi,
where this monument now stands,
and gave him the Japanese name 'Miura Anjin'.
But Adams would be pretty much the last foreigner allowed to reside
and live in Japan, where he saw out his days, respected, well-regarded,
but, in the words of W.S. Morton,
longing for his home, and looking out over the sea,
which was the source of his fortune and his sorrow.
But his legend lives on...
in stories, from Gulliver's Travels,
to James Clavell's 'Shogun'.
Although he was the first European to attain the rank of samurai,
William Adams would also prove to be the last. the Tokugawa Shogunate got wind
of the colonial and spiritual ambitions of Catholic Spain and Portugal,
banning those powers and their religion from Japan on pain of death.
The only foreign power allowed into Japanese waters were the Dutch,
who were afforded a small trading post at Nagasaki.
Living up to their job title, the early Tokugawa shoguns did indeed save Japan
from the barbarians. But this would mean that the country would not experience
the Renaissance or the Enlightenment and would be locked,
in a protracted medieval twilight...
Yet despite Japan being closed to the outside world, the country
continued to thrive, economically and culturally, under the Tokugawa shoguns...
A flaw, in the Kamakura Shogunate had been that if a branch of the family line
died out - in the case of the Minamoto, Yoritomo, his sons, and grandsons -
the shogunal succession would come to a grinding halt...
It took Masako and the Hojo years, to find somebody - in the end a great-nephew
of Yoritomo, to succeed, as Shogun.
The Tokugawa addressed this potential problem, by creating sub-branches,
in Wakayama, and Mito,
away from Edo, at a safe distance. Both the Wakayama and Mito branches of
the Tokugawa family were successful in their own right,
especially Mito, where the Tokugawa lords, like Mitsukuni, and Nariaki
outshone even the shoguns themselves, as well remembered and highly regarded figures.
Mitsukuni Tokugawa - also known as Mito Komon - the legendary Lord of Mito.
While the Tokugawa shoguns neglected Kamakura, the Tokugawa Lord of Mito,
Mitsukuni, was very fond of the place.
And he would often come here, to Zuisen-ji temple,
where he was patron.
In 1328, shortly after the temple was founded, the first priest - the celebrated
Muso Kokushi - caused a pavilion called 'Ichirantei' to be erected upon the
summit of the hill in order to afford rest and appreciation of the landscape.
Poets have compared this little structure to a miniature Elysium,
from which one could gaze down upon the vision of the world below.
When in the course of time this fabric fell into ruins, a new structure was erected,
some 200 years ago, by the enlightened scholar and philosopher Mitsukuni, Lord of Mito,
who was also a constant visitor and patron of Zuisen-ji.
This building was modeled upon the Chinese pavilion Suiotei,
built by the Chinese emperor Kiso, of the Sung Dynasty...
Mitsukuni wrote many historical documents, regarding Kamakura.
It was Mitsukuni, who kept interest in the place alive...
Apart from giving financial patronage to certain Kamakura temples and shrines,
to support their claim that they were descended from the Minamoto, the Tokugawa shoguns
largely neglected Kamakura, so it remained something of a backwater...
However, Kamakura and its environs, like here, at Kanazawa, became tourist attractions.
People would come down from the capital, at Edo, to visit
the lovely oceanside views, or the temples and shrines,
and even works of art were set here -
the first postcards.
The artist Hiroshige created woodblock prints -
'The Eight Views of Kanazawa' - which attracted even more tourists to this area.
But 'The Eight Views of Kanazawa'
would prove to be among the last depictions, of Japan, as a mysterious, isolated, medieval land,
for as Hiroshige was publishing the Eight Views of Kanazawa,
strange ships, from a far-off land came across the ocean, sailed past Kamakura,
around the Miura peninsula, and up the gulf, towards the shogun's capital...
This is Zojo-ji temple, just to the south of Edo Castle,
which houses the mausoleums of leaders of the
Tokugawa family - the last dynasty of shoguns to rule Japan.
And they were the last dynasty of shoguns because although they ruled Japan firmly,
and without serious opposition, the outside world - the modern world - was about to come knocking...
These foreign ships that had sailed up the gulf towards the capital
dropped anchor at Yokohama.
They were from America - a country that didn't even exist,
when Japan had closed its doors to the world.
The Americans, under the expedition's leader, Commodore Perry,
politely, but firmly, requested that Japan open its ports to international trade,
and establish formal diplomatic relations.
In the full, official title of the shoguns
lies the key, to why the last Tokugawa shoguns - the last shoguns of all - were overthrown.
And that title is 'Sei-i Tai shōgun' - Supreme Commander, for the Suppression of Barbarians.
And in the light of the arrival
of the Americans, British, French, and Western powers, suppressing the barbarians
was something the later shoguns were completely failing to do.
And this would anger many young, idealistic samurai...
Just as Kamakura retains the places that sowed the seeds of the Shogunate:
the temple of the sun goddess, at Hase;
Moto Hachiman;
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu;
so it retains the place, where the final seeds
of the Shogunate's destruction were sown...
An interesting fact
in connection with this temple is that for a time its tranquil seclusion afforded
a shelter to the celebrated patriot and martyr Yoshida Shoin,
whose uncle was then officiating as head priest of Zuisen-ji.
Some writings of the former are still preserved as treasures of the temple -
mementos of his loyalty to the imperial cause
and of his tragic fate.
This young samurai was an ardent loyalist.
When the American envoy Townsend Harris came to Shimoda
to conclude the commercial treaty between Japan and America
Yoshida Shoen was deeply incensed - the emperor's authority being practically ignored.
With a little band of enthusiasts they determined to attempt to overthrow the Shogunate.
With that end in view, Yoshida resolved in spite of the national edict that meted out death
to any Japanese subject who should leave the empire, to go abroad secretly
in order to make a careful study of foreign customs and methods.
His preparations were made at Zuisen-ji.
One dark night he attempted to conceal himself
on board one of the American ships of the Harris expedition,
but was discovered.
He was seized and beheaded at the early age of 28.
Nevertheless, this little group of talented and ardent patriots have been described by historians
as the real motive force that led up to the restoration of 1868...
Nariaki, the last great lord of Mito,
and one of the most powerful and influential figures in the Shogunate
in the middle of the nineteenth century built this place - the Kodokan -
to teach Confucian classics and statecraft to young samurai and future leaders of the Shogunate.
But the sun was beginning to set, not just on the Tokugawa dynasty,
but on the institution of the Shogunate itself.
Nariaki's son Yoshinobu was made Shogun.
But however capable the Tokugawa rulers were, they couldn't survive much longer,
in the face of superior Western technology and military might.
The end of the Shogunate was coming.
In light of his failure to protect Japan from the barbarians the last Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu -
also known as Keiki - stepped down.
And the first Imperial government in six centuries -
swearing allegiance to the Emperor Meiji - took power in Edo,
and renamed the capital 'Tokyo'.
And this new generation of ruling politicians
governing Japan in the name of the Emperor came to Kamakura and built
a new imperial grand shrine to express the authority of the Emperor over Japan,
and over Kamakura once again.
And they went to the site of the grave of Yoritomo.
And at Yoritomo's grave, they claimed to be rightful rulers,
based on the historical fact that they,
as Choshu and Satsuma samurai, were descended from members
of Yoritomo's first Shogunate.
With the overthrow of the Shogunate,
and the renewal of Shinto, it was the Buddhist treasures alone though,
and their temples, artifacts, and statues that were desecrated and burned.
The cultural and spiritual mix of Buddhism and Shinto, a thousand years old,
as old as the first shoguns,
was rigorously and forcefully dissolved under the auspices of 'State Shinto'.
As the medieval Shogunate faded away
and the new Imperial regime opened Japan's doors to the west,
the latest technological innovations were warmly welcomed.
Train lines were constructed from the capital at Tokyo,
down through Yokohama and Kamakura and on to the naval port of Yokosuka.
With the arrival of the trains came a new influx of interest in Kamakura.
Whether people on a day trip,
or coming for a dip,
or those who came to make a home in the city -
new residents like the noted writer Osaragi Jiro -
and also with the new train line came a new community
of wealthy, influential expatriates...
Exactly a century ago this fantastic book
'Kamakura: Fact and Legend' was published.
And the writer - Iso Mutsu - was an English woman
who was born with the name Gertrude Ethel Passingham.
And her story - it's a fascinating story - because when she lived in England as a young woman
a lodger in her house was the son of the Japanese Foreign Minister Baron Mutsu.
And after a long and sometimes difficult courtship they married and came to live in Japan -
in Kamakura - where she wrote this book, which is still in print after a hundred years.
And I'm gonna read the excerpt, regarding Kanazawa...
To the south, the vast Pacific glitters in the sunshine,
while on the northern side is outlined the indented shores
and irregular promontories of the Bay of Tokyo;
Nearby lies Yokosuka, the great naval port,
with its wide harbor and grim vessels of war;
and beyond, the pine clad islets
and jagged coast of Kanazawa...
(That's where I live!)
This latter resort is six miles from Kamakura
along the high road, and was first discovered by a Chinese priest
of the Ming Dynasty, who detected a resemblance between the celebrated Hsi-hu,
or Western Lake in China, and the lovely and imaginative scenery of Kanazawa,
beloved of poets and painters and widely famed for its Hakkei, or Eight Views.
The latter are named from the Chinese originals:
(1) Sunlight dispersing the mists of Susaki,
(2) Descending wild geese of Hirakata - in this instance the "wild geese"
are represented by the people of the district gathering shells in the lagoon at low tide;
viewed from a distance they present a similar effect
to the birds of the Chinese scene.
(3) The Twilight Bell of Shomyo-ji,
(4) Evening snow at Uchikawa,
(5) Returning sails of Otsutomo,
(6) The sunset glow of Nojima,
(7) The autumn moon of Seto,
(8) The evening showers of Koizumi.
One of the most remarkable things about Iso Mutsu's book
is despite the fact that the violent dissolution of Buddhism took place in the decades
before she arrived in Japan, so much of what she writes about still survives,
and thrives, to this day.
Despite efforts to compel the people to follow
a prescribed faith in the name of national unity,
the people went back to their old beliefs,
practices, and traditions, fusing Shinto, and Buddhism, and other folk religions, once again,
and putting the shrines back in the temples, and the temples back in the shrines,
and taking old, precious, forsaken Buddhist treasures,
and building new temples in which to store them.
After the formal dissolution of Buddhism,
many Buddhist temples were lost forever.
But even so, there was a rebirth.
Here, at Tokei-ji temple, a Zen Buddhist revival took place,
under the abbot, Shaku Soyen,
and his brilliant student, Daisetsu T. Suzuki, who brought Zen Buddhism
not only to a new audience in Japan, but for the first time,
to the world,
influencing everyone from Alan Watts,
to Jack Kerouac.
Although neglected and then badly damaged in the earthquake of 1923,
Jochi-ji was lovingly restored.
This grand bell tower is one of Kamakura's best sights.
Centuries after the last shoguns and samurai are gone,
perhaps their greatest legacy is Zen,
and the accompanying mindset, and aesthetic, that still remains,
instilled in the souls of the Japanese people...
Local organizations and people - some whose families have been here for generations,
but also newcomers too -
have devoted themselves to the preservation of Kamakura, its history, and culture,
and now in modern times, the city has arisen and prospered again.
Here, in the Land of the Rising Sun,
the sun remains forever set, on the glory days of Kamakura.
But as one passes under huge, vermilion shrine entrances,
or walks through imposing Zen mountain temple gateways,
and gazes up at bronze statues and bells,
or comes here to the beach, in the early evening, to be bathed in golden light,
one is reminded of the very last words of Iso Mutsu,
that most eloquent of Kamakura's chroniclers, who said:
"How beautiful! The sunset."