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