The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. The volumes for 1199 and 1200 hold the shogunate's orders to land stewards and constables under Yoriie, confirmations of estates to housemen, the retired emperor's and the regent's decrees, temple and shrine grants, and private deeds from the provinces, the only direct evidence for who held what land in Japan in 1200. Dry but primary and exact; the Historiographical Institute's full-text database makes it searchable.
About this source
- Title
- Kamakura ibun (鎌倉遺文)
- Author
- Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三)
- Author's dates
- Takeuchi Rizo 1907 to 1997
- Written
- documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997
- Language
- Japanese in a Chinese-style written form (kanbun) and Japanese
- Covers
- 1185 to 1333; about 36,000 documents in 42 volumes of the main series, with supplements
- Kind
- Charters and cartularies
The printed series and the JapanKnowledge edition are under copyright; the Historiographical Institute's database is free to search and gives the full text of each document. Selected documents are translated in Jeffrey Mass's studies of the Kamakura bakufu (under copyright).
Where to read it
Editions
- Takeuchi Rizo (ed.), Kamakura ibun, komonjo-hen, 42 vols with supplements (Tokyodo, 1971 to 1997) (not freely online)
- Kamakura ibun, digital edition at JapanKnowledge (subscription)