Kamakura Japan (c.1185 - c.1333)

Translated by George Perkins, with a full critical apparatus, this work focuses on a medieval history of Japan. A glossary identifies people and places mentioned in the text, and an appendix discusses details concerning the work's authorship.

Buddhism during the Kamakura era (1192-1333) has long been compared in the West to Christianity during the European Reformation. This popular view is reinforced by a retrospectivist historiography that regards all prior events as a prelude to the present. From this perspective, because today's predominant forms of Japanese Buddhism (Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren) were founded during the Kamakura, the only important events of the era are those directly related to the establishment of these three forms of Buddhism. Both the simplistic reading of the Kamakura as a Japanese Reformation and retrospectivist historiography obscure the complexity of the religious situation. While it is true that these new movements were established in the Kamakura era, it is also true that they were marginal to mainstream Buddhism during the period, gaining prominence only in the following Muromachi era (1335-1573). Despite a rhetoric of organic growth, it was hardly a foregone conclusion that these forms would even survive the era -- several similar movements of the time did not.

The essays in this collection are an interdisciplinary examination of various aspects of Buddhism during the Kamakura era, including religious practice, literature, and institutional history. They work toward a synchronic historiography and thus provide a broader understanding and appreciation of the complexity and richness of Buddhism during the Kamakura era and of Japanese Buddhism as a whole.

This extensive anthology includes excerpts from plays and novels plus stories, fairy tales, and many poems.

Every school and public library should update its resources on Japan with this engagingly written and succinct narrative history covering prehistoric times through 1997. This history, based on the most recent scholarship, provides a chronological narrative examining the political, cultural, philosophical, and religious continuities in Japan's long, rich history in an exploration of why the Japanese are who they are today. Unlike earlier histories of Japan, it brings into sharp focus a discussion of women and other previously ignored subjects. It also provides a timeline of events in Japanese history, a glossary of Japanese terms, biographical sketches of important figures, and a bibliographic essay of interest to students and general readers.