Inamuragasaki: The Day Yoshisada Cast His Sword into the Sea and Took Kamakura, 1333

In the fifth month of 1333 (Genkō 3), at Inamuragasaki to the west of Kamakura (present-day Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture).

Nitta Yoshisada was blocked by the risen tide and brought to a standstill beneath the cliff.

Before him the sea; on the cliff above, Hōjō archers. Yoshisada drew the golden sword at his waist, prayed to the dragon deity, and cast it into the sea, the Taiheiki relates.

Then the tide withdrew offshore, and a tidal flat appeared. Yoshisada raced across that mire and poured into Kamakura.

Yoshisada was a gokenin of the Nitta estate in Kōzuke Province (present-day Ōta City, Gunma Prefecture) who, though he shared the blood of Minamoto no Yoshikuni with the Ashikaga, had long been kept in a disadvantaged position.

In 1333, Emperor Go-Daigo's edict to overthrow the shogunate moved warriors across the land.

Yoshisada too lifted his banner before the Ikushina shrine. His force at the uprising is said to have been only 150 riders.

But as he headed for Kamakura, anti-Hōjō soldiers joined one after another along the way, and his army swelled to tens of thousands.

At last the realm had turned to face a man who had spent half his life in the shade.

At Bubaigawara in Musashi Province (present-day Fuchū City, Tokyo), Yoshisada's army clashed head-on with the main Hōjō force.

Once defeated and driven back, he regrouped and attacked again, breaking the Hōjō army.

The road to Kamakura opened. For Yoshisada, this battle was the place that made the name of the long-slighted Nitta line known to the realm at a stroke.

He had staked the frustration of half his life on this one engagement.

Having crossed Inamuragasaki, Yoshisada's army stormed into the streets of Kamakura.

The city was engulfed in flames, and the cornered Hōjō Takatoki and his clan holed up in Tōshō-ji and took their own lives one after another — more than 800 of them, it is transmitted.

The Kamakura shogunate, which had reigned over the eastern land for more than 140 years since Minamoto no Yoritomo founded it, perished here.

Yoshisada became the victor. But this victory would push him, whether he willed it or not, into his fated struggle with Ashikaga Takauji.

The summit of glory was also the starting point of his fall.