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92-671: The sutra was translated into Chinese three times. The only extant copy of the entire collection is found in Chinese , though the individual sutras can be found in Sanskrit and in the Tibetan canon . The anthology consists of 17 sutras across 60 fascicles. The Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra is an important collection of Mahayana sutras for the Indian Mahayana commentary tradition. The sutras in this collection were important sources for Indian anthologies like

184-508: A sutta or sutra constitutes a segment of the canonical literature. These early Buddhist sutras, unlike Hindu texts, are not aphoristic; rather, they tend to be quite lengthy. The Buddhist term sutta or sutra likely derives from Sanskrit sūkta ( su + ukta ), meaning "well spoken," reflecting the belief that "all that was spoken by the Lord Buddha was well-spoken". They embody the essence of sermons conveying "well-spoken" wisdom, akin to

276-588: A Jain text that includes monastic rules, as well as biographies of the Jain Tirthankaras . Many sutras discuss all aspects of ascetic and lay life in Jainism. Various ancient sutras particularly from the early 1st millennium CE, for example, recommend devotional bhakti as an essential Jain practice. The surviving scriptures of Jaina tradition, such as the Acaranga Sutra ( Agamas ), exist in sutra format, as

368-735: A Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā (University of Oslo October 2020). The Chinese version of the Mahāsaṃnipāta is currently being translated by Alexander James O'Neill (along with Āloka Dharmacakṣus and Charles Patton). As of 2023, only the first volume is published as The Great Collection Sūtra: A Translation of the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra Volume One (2023). The Chinese Buddhist Canon also included various other sūtras which seemed to have been associated with

460-581: A city of a certain importance, likely to attract Yoritomo's attention. The name Kamakura appears in the Kojiki of 712, and is also mentioned in the c.  8th century Man'yōshū as well as in the Wamyō Ruijushō of 938. However, the city clearly appears in the historical record only with Minamoto no Yoritomo 's founding of the Kamakura shogunate in 1192. There are various hypotheses about

552-521: A condensed manual or text. Sutras are a genre of ancient and medieval Indian texts found in Hinduism , Buddhism and Jainism . In Hinduism, sutras are a distinct type of literary composition, a compilation of short aphoristic statements. Each sutra is any short rule, like a theorem distilled into few words or syllables, around which teachings of ritual, philosophy, grammar, or any field of knowledge can be woven. The oldest sutras of Hinduism are found in

644-574: A country that had Kyoto as its capital. On July 3, 1333, warlord Nitta Yoshisada , who was an Emperor loyalist, attacked Kamakura to reestablish imperial rule. After trying to enter by land through the Kewaizaka Pass and the Gokuraku-ji Pass, he and his forces waited for a low tide, bypassed the Inamuragasaki cape, entered the city and took it. In accounts of that disastrous Hōjō defeat it

736-454: A derivation from Vedic or Sanskrit sūkta (well spoken), rather than from sūtra (thread). In Jainism, sutras, also known as suyas , are canonical sermons of Mahavira contained in the Jain Agamas as well as some later (post-canonical) normative texts. The Sanskrit word Sūtra ( Sanskrit : सूत्र, Pali : sutta , Ardha Magadhi : sūya ) means "string, thread". The root of the word

828-580: A figurehead. Since the Hōjō were part of the Taira clan, it can be said that the Taira had lost a battle, but in the end had won the war. Yoritomo's second son and third shōgun Minamoto no Sanetomo spent most of his life staying out of politics and writing poetry, but was nonetheless assassinated in February 1219 by his nephew Kugyō under the giant ginkgo tree whose trunk still stood at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū until it

920-407: A teacher to student, memorized by the recipient for discussion or self-study or as reference. A sutra by itself is condensed shorthand, and the threads of syllable are difficult to decipher or understand without associated scholarly Bhasya or deciphering commentary that fills in the " weft ". The oldest manuscripts that have survived into the modern era that contain extensive sutras are part of

1012-482: A tree trunk to being the most powerful man in the land. Defeating the Taira clan, Yoritomo became de facto ruler of much of Japan and founder of the Kamakura shogunate, an institution destined to last 141 years and to have immense repercussions over the country's history. The Kamakura shogunate era is called by historians the Kamakura period and, although its end is clearly set ( Siege of Kamakura (1333) ), its beginning

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1104-430: A valley called Ōkura (in today's Nishi Mikado ). The stele on the spot reads: 737 years ago, in 1180, Minamoto no Yoritomo built his mansion here. Consolidated his power, he later ruled from home, and his government was therefore called Ōkura Bakufu ( 大蔵幕府 ) . He was succeeded by his sons Yoriie and Sanetomo, and this place remained the seat of the government for 46 years until 1225, when his wife Hōjō Masako died. It

1196-857: A violent death, probably at the hand of Nitta's forces. The fall of Kamakura marks the beginning of an era in Japanese history characterized by chaos and violence called the Muromachi period . Kamakura's decline was slow, and in fact the next phase of its history, in which, as the capital of the Kantō region , it dominated the east of the country, lasted almost as long as the shogunate had. Kamakura would come out of it almost completely destroyed. The situation in Kantō after 1333 continued to be tense, with Hōjō supporters staging sporadic revolts here and there. In 1335, Hōjō Tokiyuki , son of last regent Takatoki , tried to re-establish

1288-457: Is siv , "that which sews and holds things together". The word is related to sūci (Sanskrit: सूचि) meaning "needle, list", and sūnā (Sanskrit: सूना) meaning "woven". In the context of literature, sūtra means a distilled collection of syllables and words, any form or manual of "aphorism, rule, direction" hanging together like threads with which the teachings of ritual, philosophy, grammar, or any field of knowledge can be woven. A sūtra

1380-514: Is any short rule, states Moriz Winternitz, in Indian literature; it is "a theorem condensed in few words". A collection of sūtras becomes a text, and this is also called sūtra (often capitalized in Western literature). A sūtra is different from other components such as Shlokas , Anuvyakhayas and Vyakhyas found in ancient Indian literature. A sūtra is a condensed rule which succinctly states

1472-410: Is no proof that it is not. (Sutra 1, Book 6) This different from body, because of heterogeneousness. (Sutra 2, Book 6) Also because it is expressed by means of the sixth case. (Sutra 3, Book 6) With Vijnanabhiksu's commentary bhasya filled in: Soul is, for there is no proof that it is not, since we are aware of "I think", because there is no evidence to defeat this. Therefore all that is to be done

1564-501: Is not. Different historians put Kamakura's beginning at a different point in time within a range that goes from the establishment of Yoritomo's first military government in Kamakura (1180) to his elevation to the rank of Sei-i Taishōgun ( 征夷大将軍 ) in 1192. It used to be thought that during this period, effective power had moved completely from the Emperor in Kyoto to Yoritomo in Kamakura, but

1656-490: Is now, and for essentially the same reasons. The destruction of its heritage nonetheless did not stop: during the anti-Buddhist violence of 1868 ( haibutsu kishaku ) that followed the official policy of separation of Shinto and Buddhism ( shinbutsu bunri ) many of the city temples were damaged. In other cases, because mixing the two religions was now forbidden, shrines or temples had to give away some of their treasures, thus damaging their cultural heritage and decreasing

1748-592: Is recorded that nearly 900 Hōjō samurai, including the last three Regents, committed suicide at their family temple, Tōshō-ji , whose ruins have been found in today's Ōmachi . Almost the entire clan vanished at once, the city was sacked and many temples were burned. Many simple citizens imitated the Hōjō, and an estimated total of over 6,000 died on that day of their own hand. In 1953, 556 skeletons of that period were found during excavations near Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's Ichi no Torii in Yuigahama, all of people who had died of

1840-508: Is the Tattvartha Sutra , a Sanskrit text accepted by all four Jainism sects as the most authoritative philosophical text that completely summarizes the foundations of Jainism. Kamakura Kamakura ( 鎌倉 , Kamakura , [kamakɯɾa] ) , officially Kamakura City ( 鎌倉市 , Kamakura-shi ) , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan . It is located in

1932-510: Is to discriminate it from things in general. (Sutra 1, Book 6) This soul is different from the body because of heterogeneousness or complete difference between the two. (Sutra 2, Book 6) Also because it, the Soul, is expressed by means of the sixth case, for the learned express it by the possessive case in such examples as 'this is my body', 'this my understanding'; for the possessive case would be unaccountable if there were absolute non-difference, between

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2024-446: The Kantō kanrei . Motouji had been sent by his father because this last understood the importance of controlling the Kantō region and wanted to have an Ashikaga in power there, but the administration in Kamakura was from the beginning characterized by its rebelliousness, so the shōgun 's idea never really worked and actually backfired. The kantō kubō era is essentially a struggle for

2116-534: The koga kubō . According to the Shinpen Kamakurashi , a guide book published in 1685, more than two centuries later the spot where the kubō 's mansion had been was still left empty by local peasants in the hope he may one day return. A long period of chaos and war followed the departure of the last kantō kubō (the Sengoku period ). Kamakura was heavily damaged in 1454 and almost completely burned during

2208-741: The Śikṣāsamuccaya of Shantideva and the Sūtrasamuccaya. It is also a major source for the Ratnagotravibhāga which especially relies on the Dhāraṇiśvararāja Sūtra . The sutra was also important in Central Asian Buddhism , and it is cited in the Book of Zambasta along with the Prajñāpāramitā and Buddhāvataṃsaka sutras. The Mahāsaṃnipāta was also an important source for

2300-619: The Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of the Vedas . Every school of Hindu philosophy , Vedic guides for rites of passage, various fields of arts, law, and social ethics developed respective sutras, which help teach and transmit ideas from one generation to the next. In Buddhism, sutras, also known as suttas , are canonical scriptures , many of which are regarded as records of the oral teachings of Gautama Buddha . They are not aphoristic, but are quite detailed, sometimes with repetition. This may reflect

2392-476: The Daibutsu and reaches Inamuragasaki and the sea. From the north to the east, Kamakura is surrounded by Mt. Rokkokuken ( 六国見 ) (147 m (482 ft)), Mt. Ōhira ( 大平山 ) (159 m (522 ft)), Mt. Jubu ( 鷲峰山 ) (127 m (417 ft)), Mt. Tendai ( 天台山 ) (141 m (463 ft)), and Mt. Kinubari ( 衣張山 ) (120 m (390 ft)), which extend all the way to Iijimagasaki and Wakae Island , on

2484-462: The East Asian Buddhist tradition, and it was translated numerous times by some of the preeminent translators of Chinese Buddhism . It was one of the first Mahayana sutras translated into Chinese as it was first translated by the 2nd century CE figure Lokakṣema (though his translation is no longer extant). Another version of the Mahāsaṃnipāta , also now lost, was translated by Kumārajīva in

2576-512: The Great Kantō earthquake that year was deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in Sagami Bay, a short distance from Kamakura. Tremors devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama , and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba , Kanagawa , and Shizuoka , causing widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. It was reported that the sea receded at an unprecedented velocity, and then waves rushed back towards

2668-489: The Jōkyū War , Takahashi (2005) has questioned whether Kamakura's nationwide political hegemony actually existed. Takahashi claims that if Kamakura ruled the Kantō , not only was the Emperor in fact still the ruler of Kansai , but during this period the city was in many ways politically and administratively still under the ancient capital of Kyoto . Kamakura was simply a rival center of political, economic and cultural power in

2760-553: The Kamakura period, such as Shinran's Jōdo Shinshū , the largest Buddhist tradition in Japan . The Chinese edition of the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra ( Taisho Tripitaka no. 397) contains the following sutras: Some parts of the sutra have been translated into English. 84000.co currently contains five translations of individual sutras: Furthermore, Jaehee Han includes a translation of the Gaganagañja sūtra in thesis The Sky as

2852-519: The Kanto region on the island of Honshu . The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km over the total area of 39.67 km (15.32 sq mi). Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamakura is one of Japan's ancient capitals, alongside Kyoto and Nara , and it served as the seat of the Kamakura shogunate from 1185 to 1333, established by Minamoto no Yoritomo . It

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2944-476: The Kashima Shrine for the fall of Soga no Iruka . He dreamed of an old man who promised his support, and upon waking, he found next to his bed a type of spear called a kamayari . Kamatari enshrined it in a place called Ōkura . Kamayari plus Ōkura then turned into the name Kamakura . However, this and similar legends appear to have arisen only after Kamatari's descendant Fujiwara no Yoritsune became

3036-567: The Mahāsaṃnipāta . These are found in the Mahāsaṃnipāta Section ( Dàjí bù , Taishō Tripiṭaka Volume 13) of the Chinese canon. These sūtras are: Sutra Sutra ( Sanskrit : सूत्र , romanized :  sūtra , lit.   'string, thread') in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly,

3128-656: The Siege of Kamakura (1526) . Many of its citizens moved to Odawara when it came to prominence as the home town of the Later Hōjō clan . The final blow to the city was the decision taken in 1603 by the Tokugawa shōgun to move the capital to nearby Edo , the place now called Tokyo. The city never recovered and gradually returned to be the small fishing village it had been before Yoritomo's arrival. Edmond Papinot's Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan , published in 1910 during

3220-408: The Vedas , dated from the late 2nd millennium BCE through to the mid 1st millennium BCE. The Aitareya Aranyaka , for example, states Winternitz, is primarily a collection of sutras . Their use and ancient roots are attested by sutras being mentioned in larger genre of ancient non-Vedic Hindu literature called Gatha , Narashansi , Itihasa , and Akhyana (songs, legends, epics, and stories). In

3312-567: The bodhisattva path, bodhicitta , non-duality , dhāraṇī , and the decline of Dharma . The Dhāraṇīśvararāja sūtra (also known as the Tathāgatamahā­karuṇā­nirdeśa ) was very influential on Indian Buddhism. This sutra is a key source for the Ratnagotravibhāga an important Indian treatise on Buddha-nature . The Ratnagotravibhāga draws on the Dhāraṇīśvararāja for all seven of its main topics and for its discussions of

3404-516: The three turnings of the wheel of Dharma since it describes the Buddha's teaching as consisting of three phases. The Candragarbha sutra was particularly influential because it enumerates the notion of the decline of the Dharma , or decline of the Buddha's teachings, dividing this into three eras. This teaching was very influential on Pure Land Buddhism in general as well as on Japanese Buddhist schools of

3496-473: The triratnavaṃśa (lineage of the three jewels ). The Dhāraṇīśvararāja also explicitly points out that the nature of the minds of sentient beings is fundamentally pure ( cittaprakrtivisuddhi ), even if they are bound by the adventitious afflictions. This is a key notion also found in the Ratnagotravibhāga . The Dhāraṇīśvararāja sūtra is also an important source for the Tibetan tradition's understanding of

3588-454: The Hōjō's fall. According to The Institute for Research on World-Systems, Kamakura was the 4th largest city in the world in 1250 AD, with 200,000 people, and Japan's largest, eclipsing Kyoto by 1200 AD. Yet, despite Kamakura's annihilation of Kyoto-based political and military power at the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185, and the failure of the Emperor to free himself from Kamakura's control during

3680-659: The Jain sutras. In Chinese, these are known as 經 ( pinyin : jīng ). These teachings are organized as part of the Tripiṭaka , specifically referred to as the Sutta Pitaka . Numerous significant or influential Mahayana texts, such as the Platform Sutra and the Lotus Sutra , are termed sutras despite being attributed to much later authors. In Theravada Buddhism , suttas constitute

3772-576: The Kanto region, known for its historical landmarks such as Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and the Great Buddha of Kamakura . Surrounded to the north, east, and west by hills and to the south by the open water of Sagami Bay , Kamakura is a natural fortress. Before the construction of several tunnels and modern roads that now connect it to Fujisawa , Ofuna  [ ja ] , and Zushi , on land it could be entered only through narrow artificial passes, among which

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3864-663: The Shikken of the Kamakura shogunate, carried out a purge against his subordinate Taira no Yoritsuna. In what is referred to as the Heizen Gate Incident, Yoritsuna and 90 of his followers were killed. The Hōjō regency however continued until Nitta Yoshisada destroyed it in 1333 at the Siege of Kamakura . It was under the regency that Kamakura acquired many of its best and most prestigious temples and shrines, for example Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, Kenchō-ji, Engaku-ji, Jufuku-ji, Jōchi-ji, and Zeniarai Benten Shrine. The Hōjō family crest in

3956-408: The Tibetan canon. However, various independent chapters are preserved in Tibetan translations (chapter 1-2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12). The colophons and titles of these independent Tibetan translations mention that they are part of the Mahāsaṃnipāta collection. The sutras of the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra discuss all of the main topics of Mahayana Buddhism. As such it is a major source for Mahayana teachings on

4048-680: The Vedic era to be necessary for reading the Veda, the second two for understanding it, and the last two for deploying the Vedic knowledge at yajnas (fire rituals). The sutras corresponding to these are embedded inside the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of the Vedas. Taittiriya Aranyaka, for example in Book 7, embeds sutras for accurate pronunciation after the terse phrases "On Letters", "On Accents", "On Quantity", "On Delivery", and "On Euphonic Laws". The fourth and often

4140-563: The area date back at least 10,000 years. Obsidian and stone tools found at excavation sites near Jōraku-ji were dated to the Old Stone Age (between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago). During the Jōmon period , the sea level was higher than now and all the flat land in Kamakura up to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū and, further east, up to Yokohama's Totsuka-ku and Sakae-ku was under water. Thus, the oldest pottery fragments found come from hillside settlements of

4232-473: The background and the inspiration for countless poems, books, jidaigeki TV dramas, Kabuki plays, songs, manga and even videogames; and are necessary to make sense of much of what one sees in today's Kamakura. Yoritomo, after the defeat and almost complete extermination of his family at the hands of the Taira clan , managed in the space of a few years to go from being a fugitive hiding from his enemies inside

4324-539: The body or the like, and the Soul to which it is thus attributed as a possession. (Sutra 3, Book 6) – Kapila in Samkhya Sutra , Translated by James Robert Ballantyne Reality is truth ( prāma , foundation of correct knowledge), and what is true is so, irrespective of whether we know it is, or are aware of that truth. – Akṣapada Gautama in Nyaya Sutra , Translated by Jeaneane D Fowler In Buddhism,

4416-503: The border between Zaimokuza and Yuigahama. In administrative terms, the municipality of Kamakura borders with Yokohama to the north, with Zushi to the east, and with Fujisawa to the west. It includes many areas outside the Seven Entrances as Yamanouchi, Koshigoe ( 腰越 ) , Shichirigahama , and Ofuna, and is the result of the fusion of Kamakura proper with the cities of Koshigoe , absorbed in 1939, Ofuna, absorbed in 1948, and with

4508-622: The border with Kotsubo and Zushi . From Kamakura's alluvional plain branch off numerous narrow valleys like the Urigayatsu, Shakadōgayatsu, Ōgigayatsu, Kamegayatsu, Hikigayatsu, and Matsubagayatsu valleys. Kamakura is crossed by the Namerigawa river, which goes from the Asaina Pass in northern Kamakura to the beach in Yuigahama for a total length of about 8 kilometers (5 mi). The river marks

4600-415: The city is therefore still ubiquitous. From the middle of the thirteenth century, the fact that the vassals (the gokenin ) were allowed to become de facto owners of the land they administered, coupled to the custom that all gokenin children could inherit, led to the parcelization of the land and to a consequent weakening of the shogunate. This, and not lack of legitimacy, was the primary cause of

4692-612: The cradle of Nichiren Buddhism during the 13th century. Founder Nichiren was not a native; he was born in Awa Province , in today's Chiba Prefecture . But it was only natural for a preacher to come here because the city was the political centre of the country at the time. Nichiren settled down in a straw hut in the Matsubagayatsu (literally transl.  pine needle valley ) district, where three temples (Ankokuron-ji, Myōhō–ji, and Chōshō-ji), have been fighting for centuries for

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4784-481: The early 5th century. Another translation was carried out by Dharmakṣema from 414 to 421 (of fascicles I-XI & XIII) which is the basis for the version that is now extant as Taishō Tripiṭaka no. 397. This version was further completed with the addition of the missing Akṣayamatinirdeśa Sūtra by Zhiyan and Baoyun (fascicle XII, c. 427) and by further translations of  Narendrayaśas (fascicles XIV-XVII, c. 586 CE). The entire Mahāsaṃnipāta does not survive in

4876-496: The east–west direction. Near the remains of Hama no Ōtorii runs Kuruma Ōji Avenue (also called Biwa Koji). These six streets (three running north to south and three east to west) were built at the time of the shogunate and are all still under heavy use. The only one to have been modified is Kuruma Ōji, a segment of which has disappeared. Per Japanese census data, the population of Kamakura has remained relatively steady in recent decades. The earliest traces of human settlements in

4968-427: The effect of looking longer than it really is when viewed from the shrine. Its entire length is under the direct administration of the shrine. Minamoto no Yoritomo made his father-in-law Hōjō Tokimasa and his men carry by hand the stones to build it to pray for the safe delivery of his son Yoriie . The dankazura used to go all the way to Geba, but it was drastically shortened during the 19th century to make way for

5060-555: The equivalent to today's Kanto, plus the Shizuoka and Yamanashi Prefectures . Kamakura's ruler was called kantō kubō , a title equivalent to shōgun assumed by Ashikaga Takauji's son Motouji after his nomination to Kantō kanrei , or deputy shōgun , in 1349. Motouji transferred his original title to the Uesugi family , which had previously held the hereditary title of shitsuji ( 執事 ) , and would thereafter provide

5152-400: The first and the second lies Geba Yotsukado which, as the name indicates, was the place where riders had to get off their horses in deference to Hachiman and his shrine. Approximately 100 metres (330 ft) after the second torii , the dankazura , a raised pathway flanked by cherry trees that marks the center of Kamakura, begins. The dankazura becomes gradually wider, giving

5244-456: The fourth shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate in 1226, some time after the name Kamakura appears in the historical record. It used to be also called Renpu ( 鎌府 ) (short for Kamakura Shogunate ( 鎌倉幕府 , Kamakura Bakufu ) ). The extraordinary events, the historical characters and the culture of the twenty years which go from Minamoto no Yoritomo's birth to the assassination of the last of his sons have been throughout Japanese history

5336-405: The hands of the Hōjō clan. Yoriie plotted to take back his power, but failed and was assassinated on July 17, 1204. His six-year-old first son Ichiman had already been killed during political turmoil in Kamakura, while his second son Yoshinari at age six was forced to become a Buddhist priest under the name Kugyō . From then on all power would belong to the Hōjō, and the shōgun would be just

5428-420: The history of Indian literature, large compilations of sutras, in diverse fields of knowledge, have been traced to the period from 600 BCE to 200 BCE (mostly after Buddha and Mahavira), and this has been called the "sutras period". This period followed the more ancient Chhandas period , Mantra period and Brahmana period . (The ancient) Indian pupil learnt these sutras of grammar, philosophy or theology by

5520-512: The honour of being the true heir of the master. During his turbulent life Nichiren came and went, but Kamakura always remained at the heart of his religious activities. It is here that, when he was about to be executed by the Hōjō Regent for being a troublemaker, he was allegedly saved by a miracle; it is also in Kamakura that he wrote his famous Risshō Ankoku Ron ( 立正安国論 ) , or ' Treatise on Peace and Righteousness ' , and that legend says he

5612-484: The impassable Inamuragasaki cape and arriving in Yuigahama. Again according to the Azuma Kagami, the first of the Kamakura shōgun , Minamoto no Yoritomo , chose it as a base partly because it was his ancestors' land (his yukari no chi ), and partly because of these physical characteristics. To the north of the city stands Mt. Genji ( 源氏山 , Genjiyama ) (92 m (302 ft)), which then passes behind

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5704-510: The impression that prosperity had been brought there by the new regime. To the contrary, it is known that by the Nara period (about 700 AD) there were both temples and shrines. Sugimoto-dera for example was built during this period and is therefore one of the city's oldest temples. The town was also the seat of area government offices and the point of convergence of several land and marine routes. It seems therefore only natural that it should have been

5796-980: The last layer of philosophical, speculative text in the Vedas, the Upanishads, too have embedded sutras such as those found in the Taittiriya Upanishad . The compendium of ancient Vedic sutra literature that has survived, in full or fragments, includes the Kalpa Sutras , Shulba Sutras , Srauta Sutras , Dharma Sutras , Grhya Sutras , and Smarta traditions . Other fields for which ancient sutras are known include etymology, phonetics, and grammar. Example of sutras from Vedanta Sutra अथातो ब्रह्मजिज्ञासा ॥१.१.१॥ जन्माद्यस्य यतः ॥ १.१.२॥ शास्त्रयोनित्वात् ॥ १.१.३॥ तत्तुसमन्वयात् ॥ १.१.४॥ ईक्षतेर्नाशब्दम् ॥ १.१.५॥ — Brahma Sutra 1.1.1–1.1.5 Some examples of sutra texts in various schools of Hindu philosophy include Sutra, without commentary: Soul is, for there

5888-432: The late Meiji period, describes it as follows: Kamakura . A small town (7250 inh.) in Sagami which for several centuries was the second capital of Japan.   [...] At present there remain of the splendor of the past only the famous Daibutsu and the Tsurugaoka Hachiman temple. After the Meiji Restoration , Kamakura's great cultural assets, its beach, and the mystique that surrounded its name made it as popular as it

5980-470: The message, while a Shloka is a verse that conveys the complete message and is structured to certain rules of musical meter, an Anuvyakhaya is an explanation of the reviewed text, while a Vyakhya is a comment by the reviewer. Sutras first appear in the Brahmana and Aranyaka layer of Vedic literature. They grow in number in the Vedangas, such as the Shrauta Sutras and Kalpa Sutras. These were designed so that they can be easily communicated from

6072-472: The newly constructed Yokosuka railroad line . In Kamakura, wide streets are known as Ōji ( 大路 ) , narrower streets as Kōji ( 小路 ) , the small streets that connect the two as zushi ( 辻子 ) , and intersections as tsuji ( 辻 ) . Komachi Ōji and Ima Kōji run respectively east and west of Wakamiya Ōji, while Yoko Ōji , the road that passes right under San no Torii , and Ōmachi Ōji , which goes from Kotsubo to Geba and Hase , run in

6164-453: The now-independent Meigetsu-in used to belong. In 1890, the railroad, which until then had arrived just to Ofuna, reached Kamakura bringing in tourists and new residents, and with them a new prosperity. Part of the ancient Dankazura (see above) was removed to let the railway system's new Yokosuka Line pass. The damage caused by time, centuries of neglect, politics, and modernization was further compounded by nature in 1923. The epicenter of

6256-447: The origin of the name. According to the most likely theory, Kamakura, surrounded as it is on three sides by mountains, was likened both to a cooking hearth ( 竃 , kamado, kama ) and to a warehouse ( 倉 , kura ) , because both only have one side open. Another and more picturesque explanation is a legend, relating how Fujiwara no Kamatari stopped at Yuigahama on his way to today's Ibaraki Prefecture , where he wanted to pray at

6348-422: The period between 7500 BC and 5000 BC. In the late Jōmon period the sea receded and civilization progressed. During the Yayoi period (300 BC–300 AD), the sea receded further almost to today's coastline, and the economy shifted radically from hunting and fishing to farming. The Azuma Kagami describes pre-shogunate Kamakura as a remote, forlorn place, but there is reason to believe its writers simply wanted to give

6440-663: The progress of research has revealed this was not the case. Even after the consolidation of the shogunate's power in the east, the Emperor continued to rule the country, particularly its west. However, it is undeniable that Kamakura had a certain autonomy and that it had surpassed the technical capital of Japan politically, culturally and economically. The shogunate even reserved for itself an area in Kyoto called Rokuhara ( 六波羅 ) where lived its representatives, who were there to protect its interests. In 1179, Yoritomo married Hōjō Masako , an event of far-reaching consequences for Japan. In 1180, he entered Kamakura, building his residence in

6532-566: The rules of musical meters for Samaveda chants and songs. A larger collection of ancient sutra literature in Hinduism corresponds to the six Vedangas, or six limbs of the Vedas . These are six subjects that said in the Vedas to be necessary for complete mastery of the Vedas. The six subjects with their own sutras were "pronunciation ( Shiksha ), meter ( Chandas ), grammar ( Vyakarana ), explanation of words ( Nirukta ), time keeping through astronomy ( Jyotisha ), and ceremonial rituals (Kalpa). The first two, states Max Muller, were considered in

6624-468: The same mechanical method which fixes in our (modern era) minds the alphabet and the multiplication table. Traditional Some of the earliest surviving specimens of sutras of Hinduism are found in the Anupada Sutras and Nidana Sutras . The former distills the epistemic debate whether Sruti or Smriti or neither must be considered the more reliable source of knowledge, while the latter distills

6716-583: The same site in Kamakura where Yoritomo's Ōkura Bakufu had been, but in 1336 he left Kamakura in charge of his son Yoshiakira and went west in pursuit of Nitta Yoshisada. The Ashikaga then decided to permanently stay in Kyoto, making Kamakura instead the capital of the Kamakura-fu ( 鎌倉府 ) (or Kantō-fu ( 関東府 ) ), a region including the provinces of Sagami , Musashi , Awa , Kazusa , Shimōsa , Hitachi , Kozuke , Shimotsuke , Kai , and Izu , to which were later added Mutsu and Dewa , making it

6808-469: The sea, a wide expanse of sand was fully exposed above the waterline. Many temples founded centuries ago have required restoration, and it is for this reason that Kamakura has just one National Treasure in the building category (the Shariden at Engaku-ji ). Much of Kamakura's heritage was for various reasons over the centuries first lost and later rebuilt. Kamakura is known among Buddhists for having been

6900-527: The second "basket" (pitaka) of the Pāli Canon . Rewata Dhamma and Bhikkhu Bodhi describe the Sutta Pitaka as: The Sutta Pitaka, the second collection, brings together the Buddha's discourses spoken by him on various occasions during his active ministry of forty-five years. In the Jain tradition, sutras are an important genre of "fixed text", which used to be memorized. The Kalpa Sūtra is, for example,

6992-565: The seven most important were called Kamakura's Seven Entrances ( 鎌倉七口 ) , a name sometimes translated as ' Kamakura's Seven Mouths ' . The natural fortification made Kamakura an easily defensible stronghold. Before the opening of the Entrances, access on land was so difficult that the Azuma Kagami reports that Hōjō Masako came back to Kamakura from a visit to Sōtōzan temple in Izu bypassing by boat

7084-525: The shogunate between the Kamakura and the Kyoto branches of the Ashikaga clan, because both believed they had a valid claim to power. In the end, Kamakura had to be retaken by force in 1454. The five kubō recorded by history, all of Motouji's bloodline, were in order Motouji himself, Ujimitsu , Mitsukane , Mochiuji and Shigeuji . The last kubō had to escape to Koga , in today's Ibaraki prefecture, and he and his descendants thereafter became known as

7176-568: The shogunate by force and defeated Kamakura's de facto ruler Ashikaga Tadayoshi in Musashi, in today's Kanagawa Prefecture . He was in his turn defeated in Koshigoe by Ashikaga Takauji , who had come in force from Kyoto to help his brother. Takauji, founder of the Ashikaga shogunate which, at least nominally, ruled Japan during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, at first established his residence at

7268-407: The shore in a great wall of water over seven meters high, drowning some and crushing others beneath an avalanche of waterborne debris. The total death toll from earthquake, tsunami, and fire exceeded 2,000 victims. Large sections of the shore simply slid into the sea; and the beach area near Kamakura was raised up about six-feet; or in other words, where there had only been a narrow strip of sand along

7360-530: The shrine. This road is known as Wakamiya Ōji , the city's main street. Built by Minamoto no Yoritomo as an imitation of Kyoto's Suzaku Ōji , Wakamiya Ōji used to be much wider, delimited on both sides by a 3-metre-deep (9.8 ft) canal and flanked by pine trees. Walking from the beach toward the shrine, one passes through three torii , or Shinto gates, called respectively Ichi no Torii ( ' first gate ' ), Ni no Torii ( ' second gate ' ) and San no Torii ( ' third gate ' ). Between

7452-476: The spot where Nichiren used to meditate while admiring Mount Fuji, the place where his disciple Nichiro was cremated, and the cave where he is supposed to have written his Risshō Ankoku Ron . Nearby Myōhō–ji (also called Koke-dera or ' Temple of Moss ' ), a much smaller temple, was erected in an area where Nichiren had his home for 19 years. The third Nichiren temple in Nagoe, Chōshō-ji , also claims to lie on

7544-535: The time used to be Sakado-gō ( 尺度郷 ) . The border post used to lie about a hundred meters past today's Kita-Kamakura train station in Ofuna 's direction. Although very small, Yamanouchi is famous for its traditional atmosphere and the presence, among others, of three of the five highest-ranking Rinzai Zen temples in Kamakura, the Kamakura Gozan ( 鎌倉五山 ) . These three great temples were built here because Yamanouchi

7636-526: The value of their properties. Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's giant Niō ( 仁王 ) (the two wooden warden gods usually found at the sides of a Buddhist temple's entrance), for example, being objects of Buddhist worship and therefore illegal where they were, were brought to Jufuku-ji, where they still are. The shrine also had to destroy Buddhism-related buildings, for example its tahōtō tower, its midō ( 御堂 ) , and its shichidō garan . Some Buddhist temples were simply closed, like Zenkō-ji , to which

7728-492: The very spot where it all started. Kamakura has many historically significant Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, some of them, like Sugimoto-dera, over 1,200 years old. Kōtoku-in , with its monumental outdoor bronze statue of Amida Buddha , is the most famous. A 15th-century tsunami destroyed the temple that once housed the Great Buddha, but the statue survived and has remained outdoors ever since. This iconic Daibutsu

7820-511: The village of Fukasawa, absorbed in 1948. Northwest of Kamakura lies Yamanouchi, commonly called Kita-Kamakura because of the presence of East Japan Railway Company 's (JR) Kita-Kamakura Station . Yamanouchi, however, was technically never a part of historical Kamakura since it is outside the Seven Entrances. Yamanouchi was the northern border of the city during the shogunate, and the important Kobukorozaka and Kamegayatsu Passes , two of Kamakura's Seven Entrances, led directly to it. Its name at

7912-459: Was given Yoshitsune's head pickled in liquor. For the same reason, in 1193 he had his other brother Noriyori killed. Power was now firmly in his hands, but the Minamoto dynasty and its power however were to end as quickly and unexpectedly as they had started. In 1199, Yoritomo died falling from his horse at the age of 51, and was buried in a temple that had until then housed his tutelary goddess. He

8004-503: Was rescued and fed by monkeys. Kamakura is also where he preached. Some Kamakura locations important to Nichiren Buddhism are: Ankokuron-ji claims to have on its grounds the cave where the master, with the help of a white monkey, hid from his persecutors. (However Hosshō-ji in Zushi 's Hisagi district makes the same claim, and with a better historical basis.) Within Ankokuron-ji lie also

8096-667: Was succeeded by his 17-year-old son Minamoto no Yoriie under the regency of his maternal grandfather Hōjō Tokimasa . A long and bitter fight ensued in which entire clans like the Hatakeyama , the Hiki , and the Wada were wiped out by the Hōjō who wished to get rid of Yoritomo's supporters and consolidate their power. Yoriie did become head of the Minamoto clan and was regularly appointed shōgun in 1202 but by that time, real power had already fallen into

8188-576: Was the first military government in Japan's history. After the downfall of the shogunate, Kamakura saw a temporary decline. However, during the Edo period , it regained popularity as a tourist destination among the townspeople of Edo . Despite suffering significant losses of historical and cultural assets due to the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923, Kamakura continues to be one of the major tourist attractions in

8280-485: Was the home territory of the Hōjō clan , a branch of the Taira clan which ruled Japan for 150 years. Among Kita-Kamakura's most illustrious citizens were artist Isamu Noguchi and movie director Yasujirō Ozu . Ozu is buried at Engaku-ji . Kamakura's defining feature is Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū , a Shinto shrine in the center of the city. A 1.8-kilometre (1.1 mi) road ( 参道 , sandō ) runs from Sagami Bay directly to

8372-529: Was then transferred to Utsunomiya Tsuji ( 宇津宮辻 ) . Erected in March 1917 by the Kamakurachō Seinenkai In 1185, his forces, commanded by his younger brother Minamoto no Yoshitsune , vanquished the Taira and in 1192 he received from Emperor Go-Toba the title of Sei-i Taishōgun . Yoshitsune's power would however cause Yoritomo's envy; the relationship between the brothers soured, and in 1189 Yoritomo

8464-469: Was uprooted by a storm in the early hours of March 10, 2010. Kugyō himself, the last of his line, was beheaded as a punishment for his crime by the Hōjō just hours later. Barely 30 years into the shogunate, the Seiwa Genji dynasty who had created it in Kamakura had ended. In 1293, a severe earthquake killed 23,000 people and seriously damaged the city. In the confusion following the quake, Hōjō Sadatoki,

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