Shinto shrines · The Kamakura house and its housemen · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Tsurugaoka Hachimangū

Tsurugaoka Hachimangū is the war-god shrine of the Minamoto: the Hachiman cult of Yoriyoshi's time, moved by Yoritomo in 1180 from Yuigahama to the hill at the head of the avenue (Wakamiya Ōji) that runs down to the sea, and rebuilt in 1191 (recalled).

It is a shrine-temple: monks serve it as bettō, and the great festival is on the fifteenth of the eighth month (about 24 September 1200) with the release of living things (hōjōe) and horse archery (yabusame), the Kamakura rite begun under Yoritomo (recalled). It stands in the heart of Kamakura and is the place where the housemen swear and meet; the sixty-six who signed against Kajiwara are recalled as meeting at its gallery. The sword and the tree of Sanetomo's murder (1219) are far later.

Who holds it

Name
not pinned for 1200
Title
Head of the shrine-temple (bettō), a monk of the Tendai or Shingon line
Since
not applicable
Family
not known. Yoritomo made the shrine the guardian of his house; the bettō who served him is not pinned here.
Confidence
low

Recollection of the Azuma Kagami: Yoriyoshi's Hachiman shrine of 1063 at Yuigahama, moved by Yoritomo to the hill in 1180 and rebuilt in 1191 after a fire; the English page was not found.

Overlord

Minamoto no Yoriie as head of the house; the court's rank

What it holds

  • The shrine-temple on the hill and the Wakamiya avenue
  • Estates in the Kantō (recalled, not itemised)

How it was acquired

Moved and rebuilt by Yoritomo.

Allies and rivals

Everyone in Kamakura honours it; its bettō is in the Mandokoro's gift.

How things stand that morning

The housemen's meeting place; the festival of the eighth month is ahead.

Wealth

Offerings; estates; no figure.

Threats

  • Fire

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. Shōji 2/8/15 (about 24 September 1200)The yearly festival with the hōjōe and the yabusame (recalled as annual).Depends on: Yoriie's presence; peace Stopped by: Mourning or crisis

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board's Kamakura point is the town; this record is the shrine.

Evidence: Recollection only.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Small disc.

Primary sources for Kamakura regime

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
  • Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
  • Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
  • Diary of the Inokuma Regent: the diary of Konoe Iezane, Konoe Iezane (近衛家実) (1197 to 1218, as a daily diary). The diary of the regent's heir, aged twenty-one in 1200 and already a senior courtier under his father Konoe Motomichi, who was regent (sessho) for the child emperor Tsuchimikado. Read online
  • Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
  • Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
  • Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
  • The Tale of the Heike, Anonymous; traditionally attributed to Shinano no Zenji Yukinaga, performed and reshaped by blind reciters (early thirteenth century in its first form; the standard Kakuichi text was fixed in 1371). The epic of the Genpei war, in the form the reciters gave it over the century after 1200. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. KJA_BRIEF.md and the OMNIA board for sheet kja (the lead's notes: [own] computation, [not yet checked against the source] recollection, [en] English Wikipedia)
  2. Azuma Kagami (the Kamakura chronicle), Kenkyu 10 to Shoji 2 entries, recalled and through the brief; ja.wikipedia and ja.wikisource were refused in this session, so no entry was re-read
  3. Jeffrey P. Mass, Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan (1974), from memory; the archive.org full text could not be opened

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.