Bundle 78: Kamakura Era: Leaders at a Cultural Divide

These essays show how in the Kamakura era (1185–1333), emperors and shoguns operated on distinctly different wavelengths. Shoguns governed from Kamakura with warrior ideals, creating a militaristic culture in which samurai pursued spearsmanship and swordsmanship, using dogs as archery targets. Meanwhile, in Kyoto, emperors were powerless figureheads who focused on promoting Japanese culture. They wrote verse, compiled poetry anthologies, and built temples with Zen gardens. But temples weren't always peaceful oases; the shogunate surreptitiously used many for political ends (as when monks monitored local conditions for the military). With this setup, rulers disguised their power under a religious mask.