Kamakura is the perfect getaway from Tokyo for anyone who wants to soak up history and nature in a single day. Less than an hour by train from the capital, this small seaside city was the centre of power in Japan for almost a century and a half, when the samurai ruled from here, and from that golden age it keeps dozens of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines tucked away among wooded hills. Its symbol, the bronze Great Buddha that has sat in the open air for more than seven hundred years, is one of the most serene and powerful images in all of Japan.
But Kamakura is no museum: it's a lively, charming city. It has a shopping street that's always buzzing, full of sweets and crafts, temple gardens that burst with hydrangeas in June, a century-old tram that rattles along beside the ocean, bamboo groves where you can sip matcha, mountain trails between shrines, and beaches where Tokyoites go surfing. It's the ideal mix of spiritual calm, relaxed strolling and sea air.
This guide takes a practical look at Kamakura: how to get there from Tokyo and get around by train, Enoden tram and on foot; which temples you can't miss (from the Great Buddha to the great Zen monasteries of Kita-Kamakura); when to go to see the hydrangeas or the autumn foliage; and how to combine history, bamboo and beach in one of the most well-rounded day trips in the Kanto region.
Kamakura entered the main stage of Japanese history in the late 12th century. In 1185, after defeating the rival Taira clan in a long war, the samurai leader Minamoto no Yoritomo established his military government here and, in 1192, was named shogun: the Kamakura shogunate was born, the first samurai government, which moved real power from the imperial court in Kyoto to this easily defended coastal city, surrounded by hills and open to the sea. For almost 150 years, Kamakura was the de facto capital of Japan and one of the largest cities in the world, with temples, shrines and an intense religious life: Zen Buddhism and other schools flourished here, and the Great Buddha and dozens of temples were built. In 1274 and 1281, the shogunate withstood two Mongol invasions, thwarted by typhoons that tradition called 'kamikaze' ('divine winds'). Kamakura's power fell in 1333, when the city was taken and the shogunate destroyed; over the centuries it became a quiet temple town. The full story, from the samurai to the present day, is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Japan's political heart: from the fishing village called Edo to the Tokyo of 37 million, with Kamakura, Nikko and Hakone around it.
Read the history of Kanto (Tokyo and surroundings) →If you only have one day, take a guided tour on the first one: it sets up the rest of your trip and saves you a lot of walking. We look ours up on Civitatis: guided in Spanish and booked online with no fuss. They have over 30 activities in Tokio. And there are free tours here: you book without paying and tip the guide whatever you think at the end, so trying one costs you nothing. Three are below so you get the idea: tap any of them and they all open.
They depart from Tokio, 41 km away. If you book from this link we earn a commission and you pay no more.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Kamakura burst onto the main stage of Japanese history at the end of the 12th century, and in doing so it changed the country for good. Until then, power lay with the imperial court in Kyoto, a refined world of aristocrats and poets. But the warrior class — the samurai — had been growing stronger, and a brutal civil war between two great clans, the Minamoto (or Genji) and the Taira (or Heike), changed everything. In 1185, after years of fighting, the warlord Minamoto no Yoritomo crushed the Taira once and for all at the naval battle of Dan-no-ura.
Yoritomo then made a momentous decision: instead of ruling from Kyoto, he set up his own power base in Kamakura, a small coastal town in the Kanto region, in the east of the country, far from the court's influence. The choice was no accident: Kamakura was surrounded by hills on three sides and open to the sea to the south, a position that was easy to defend and well suited to the military government he had in mind. In 1192, the emperor named him 'seii taishogun' (shogun), the supreme military commander.
So the Kamakura shogunate was born (or bakufu, 'tent government'), the first of the military governments that would rule Japan for almost seven centuries. The emperor remained in Kyoto as a sacred figure, but real power passed into the hands of the samurai. It was the start of a new era: the beginning of feudal Japan, with its warrior code, its austerity and its martial values, which would shape the country right up to modern times.
For almost 150 years, Kamakura was the de facto capital of Japan and one of the largest cities in the world, with a population that at its peak may have reached the tens of thousands and perhaps topped 100,000. Yoritomo had the great Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine built, dedicated to Hachiman, the god of war and protector of the Minamoto clan. It became the ceremonial heart of the warrior city, with its ceremonial avenue laid out all the way to the sea.
After Yoritomo's death, real power passed to the Hojo clan, related to him by marriage, who ruled as regents (shikken) on behalf of puppet shoguns. Under the Hojo, Kamakura enjoyed its cultural and spiritual golden age. It was a time of intense religious life: Zen Buddhism, brought over from China, took firm root here, and it fitted perfectly with the austere, disciplined mindset of the samurai. Great Zen monasteries were founded — Kencho-ji (1253), the oldest in Japan, and Engaku-ji (1282), among others — later organised into Kamakura's system of 'Five Great Temples' (Gozan).
The bronze Great Buddha (Kamakura Daibutsu), cast around 1252, also dates from this golden age, and it sums up the spirit of the time: monumental, serene and austere. The city filled up with temples, shrines, passes cut into the hills (the 'kiridoshi', defensive routes) and a culture of its own, different from the courtly refinement of Kyoto: that of the warrior, plainer and more martial.
The most dramatic episode in Kamakura's history came in the 13th century, when the largest empire in the world set its sights on Japan. Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan and emperor of Mongol China, demanded that the shogunate submit. When it refused, he launched two huge invasions. In 1274, and again with an even larger force in 1281, enormous Mongol fleets — carrying Mongol, Chinese and Korean troops — landed in northern Kyushu, in the southwest of Japan, with weapons and tactics that outmatched those of the samurai.
The Kamakura shogunate mobilised warriors from across the country to resist. The samurai fought with tremendous courage, but on both occasions it was nature that proved decisive: violent typhoons struck the invading fleets, sinking thousands of ships and drowning a large part of the Mongol army. Japan was spared invasion. Those providential typhoons were etched into the country's memory as 'kamikaze', the 'divine winds', seen as protection from the gods (an idea that would tragically resurface in the Second World War).
Paradoxically, victory weakened Kamakura. The defence had been extremely expensive and, since no enemy land had been conquered, the shogunate could not reward the thousands of samurai who had fought as they expected. Resentment grew within the warrior class, slowly undermining its loyalty to the Hojo government.
The discontent left behind by the Mongol invasions finally brought down the Kamakura shogunate. In 1333, Emperor Go-Daigo, who wanted to win back real power for the court, led a rebellion against the Hojo government. One of the generals sent to put it down, Ashikaga Takauji, switched to the imperial side, while another warlord, Nitta Yoshisada, marched straight on Kamakura. The city fell; the last Hojo regents and hundreds of their followers took their own lives rather than fall into enemy hands, and the Kamakura shogunate came to an end.
That imperial attempt to restore the court's power (the 'Kenmu Restoration') did not last long: Ashikaga Takauji himself turned against the emperor and founded a new shogunate, the Ashikaga, based once again in Kyoto. Kamakura thus lost its role as capital and its status as the centre of power. Although for a time it remained important as the seat of a military governor for the east (the Kamakura-fu), it steadily lost influence and population over the following centuries.
Through the long periods of war and peace that followed, Kamakura was reduced to a quiet town, defined by its temples and shrines and by the memory of its past glory. The great hall that sheltered the bronze Buddha was swept away by storms and a tsunami at the end of the 15th century, and the statue was left in the open air, a silent witness to a golden age that would never return.
In the long run, the silence of the centuries after its fall turned out to be a blessing for Kamakura: left on the sidelines of power and of large-scale industrial development, the city kept an extraordinary heritage of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, many of them from the shogunate era, set among hills and forests. When the railway linked it to Tokyo and Yokohama at the end of the 19th century, Kamakura began to attract residents, artists and writers looking for its calm seaside atmosphere, and it earned a reputation as a cultural retreat.
Today Kamakura is one of the favourite getaways from Tokyo, less than an hour away by train. Every year, millions of visitors take in the bronze Great Buddha, climb up to Hasedera among the hydrangeas, stroll through the great Zen temples of Kita-Kamakura, snack their way along lively Komachi-dori and rattle along the coast on the old Enoden tram. The city keeps a special feel, a mix of spiritual calm, sea air and everyday life, very different from the rush of the capital.
Although its bid for World Heritage status has not succeeded so far, Kamakura as a whole is still one of Japan's great historical treasures: the city where samurai power was born, where Zen took root and where a bronze Buddha has sat meditating in the open air for more than seven hundred years. Walking around Kamakura is, at heart, strolling through the cradle of feudal Japan, with your feet in the sand and your eyes on the temples.
