Kamakura City

Despite being one of the most densely populated parts of the world, containing the capital city and Japan’s most significant urban area, Greater Tokyo is historically newer than many places in the country. It wasn’t until the 1600s during the Edo Period that the area, then called Edo, became important; before that, it was just a fishing village and a series of swampy plains. However, one place in the Kantō area had had a substantial cultural impact on the whole of Japan starting about 900 years ago — the village of Kamakura. A very brief history lesson Without Kamakura and the resulting Kamakura Period, Japan would possibly not have elevated samurai warriors to the ruling class and established Shogunate rule. A lot of what we associate Japanese culture with would likely not exist. Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan from 1192 until he died in 1199. Born into what is now called Nagoya, in central Japan, his family’s house was a part of that period’s Imperial court in Kyoto. A rebellion saw most of his family executed and himself, along with his brothers, exiled, and he moved to Kamakura to…