page_title: Nitta Yoshisada
section_title: March on Kamakura
hierarchical_section_title: Nitta Yoshisada / Kamakura campaign / March on Kamakura
caption_attribution_description: English: Inamura Promontory moon at daybreak (Inamurgasaki no akebono no tsuki)
context_page_description: Nitta Yoshisada was the head of the Nitta clan in the early fourteenth century, and supported the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in the Nanboku-chō period. He famously marched on Kamakura, besieging and capturing it from the Hōjō clan in 1333.
  Later he fought the Takauji brothers on the Emperor's behalf in a see-saw campaign which saw the capital change hands several times. After a compromise peace was agreed, Yoshisada was entrusted with two royal princes. At the siege of Kanegasaki both were killed, along with Yoshisada's son, although Yoshisada was able to escape.
  He died when his horse was killed at the siege of Kuromaru. Pinned under it, he committed seppuku.
context_section_description: In 1331, after being ordered by the bakufu (shogunate) to join an army at the Chihaya fortress, Nitta was ordered by Prince Morinaga and Emperor Go-Daigo to strike at the Hōjō, so he left his post. Returning to his home province of Kozuke, Yoshisada rallied the aid of other descendants and vassals, including his brother Yoshisuke of the Minamoto clan, and began to march toward Kamakura through Musashi. On the approaches to the city, Nitta enjoyed some early victories, routing the Hōjō defenders and pursuing them towards the city.
  
  Except for its coastline, Kamakura is surrounded by steep hills, making an overland attack difficult. Nitta first tried to enter through the Gokurakuji Pass and the Kewaizaka Pass, but strong Hōjō forces stopped him. Judging it impossible to enter by land, Nitta decided to try by sea, bypassing Inamuragasaki Cape on Sagami Bay, west of Kamakura. Once there, Nitta took advantage of a low tide and moved his men in through the beaches to the south, but according to the Taiheiki, he threw his sword into the surf and prayed to Ryūjin, who parted the waters for him. In describing this event, Japanese sources say Nitta Yoshisada prayed to a sea-god or Ryūjin; English sources almost always refer to Sun Goddess Amaterasu. The Taiheiki (稲村崎成干潟事) says: 
  Dismounting from his horse, Yoshisada removed his helmet and prostrating himself across the distant seas prayed to Ryūjin. "It is said that the lord of Japan from the beginning, Amaterasu Ōmikami, enshrined at Ise Jingū, hid herself within a Vairocana and appeared as Ryūjin of the vast blue seas. My lord (Emperor Go-Daigo) is her descendant, and drifts upon waves of the western sea due to rebels. I Yoshisada, in an attempt to serve as a worthy subject, will pick up my axes and face the enemy line. That desire is to aid the nation and bring welfare to the masses. Ryūjin of the Eight Protectorate Gods of the (seven) Inner Seas and the Outer Sea, witness this subject’s loyalty and withdraw the waters afar, open a path to the lines of the three armies.
   He therefore speaks to Ryūjin who, he has heard, is a manifestation of Amaterasu.
  The stele at Sode no Ura (袖の浦), the tiny bay west of Inamuragaki, says: 
  666 years ago on May 21, 1333 Nitta Yoshisada, judging an invasion on land to be difficult, decided to try to bypass this cape. This is the place where, according to tradition, he threw his golden sword into the waves, praying the sea-god to withdraw them and let him pass. (Erected in 1917)
caption: Nitta Yoshisada offering his sword to Ryūjin
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