Kamakura Shogunate

  General Description   The Kamakura period (1185-1333 CE) begins with the victory of the Minamoto family over the Taira clan in the Gempei War. In 1192 CE, Minamoto military victory received official recognition when Minatomo no Yoritomo was appointed shogun (great general) by the emperor. ^[1] Although the emperor in Kyoto remained the nominal ruler, as the first shogun, Yoritomo managed to avoid court influence and intrigues by locating his base of operations close to his traditional support base in Kamakura, near present day Tokyo, from which the period takes its name. ^{[2] [1]} The Kamakura Shogunate marks the beginning of Japan’s medieval era, which saw the rise of warrior rule combined with a feudal system of landholding and administration. ^[2] While the borders to the east, west and south remained roughly constant, the exact extent of the polity’s territory to the north was not rigidly defined. ^[3]
The ’peak’ of the Kamakura Shogunate could be considered to coincide with the reign of the Hōjō regent Hōjō Yasutoki (r. 1224-1242 CE), who was responsible for institutionalizing the way the bakufu (military government) mediated disputes and governed. ^[4] The period ends in 1333 CE with the overthrow of the shogunate and the restoration of the Emperor Go-Daigo. ^[5]
Population and political organization
The shogunate, also known as the bakufu (literally ’tent headquarters’), issued in a new period of military governance. However, many of the older institutions inherited from the Heian period persisted, albeit in weakened form. ^[1] The degree to which the imperial court lost its power is still somewhat uncertain, and some scholars have argued that there was more cooperation between the court and shogunate than previously thought. ^[6] The central political relationship now became that between the lord and his vassals: loyalty, either willing or enforced, formed the basis of governance. ^[7] The shogun rewarded loyalty with grants of estates and offices. Vassals collected taxes but retained a portion, depleting the revenue of the central government. Warriors became the political, social and economic elite, drawing their economic power from their landholdings. ^[8]
Echoing developments in the preceding Heian period, when imperial power was tempered by that of powerful regents, the shogun became functionally subordinate to hereditary regents from the Hōjō family (who lacked the necessary social rank to become shoguns in their own right) after the death of Yoritomo in 1199. ^[9] In 1274 and 1281 CE, there were two failed Mongol invasions; this external threat may have helped to mute any internal dissent until the restoration of Emperor Go-Daigo. ^[10]
The historian William Wayne Farris gives an estimate of between five and six million for the population of the Kamakura Shogunate. ^[11]

[1]: (Henshall 2012, 35) Kenneth Henshall. 2012. A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower. 3rd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[2]: (Deal 2005, 3) William E. Deal. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[3]: (Batten 1999, 173-74) Bruce Batten. 1999. ’Frontiers and Boundaries of Pre-Modern Japan’. Journal of Historical Geography 25 (2): 166-82.

[4]: (Mass 2008, 74) Jeffrey P. Mass. 2008. ’The Kamakura Bakufu’, in The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 3: Medieval Japan, edited by Kozo Yamamura, 46-88. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[5]: (Deal 2005, 4) William E. Deal. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[6]: (Henshall 2012, 35-36) Kenneth Henshall. 2012. A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower. 3rd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[7]: (Deal 2005, 88) William E. Deal. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[8]: (Deal 2005, 2, 4) William E. Deal. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[9]: (Deal 2005, 4-5) William E. Deal. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[10]: (Henshall 2012, 37-38) Kenneth Henshall. 2012. A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower. 3rd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[11]: (Farris 2006, 9, 100) William Wayne Farris. 2006. Japan’s Medieval Population: Famine, Fertility, and Warfare in a Transformative Age. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.