rä), city (1990 pop. 174,307), Kanagawa prefecture, central Honshu, Japan, on Sagami Bay and at the base of the Miura Peninsula. It is a resort and residential area but is chiefly noted as a religious center, the site of more than 80 shrines and temples. Kamakura is especially famous for its daibutsu [Jap.,=great Buddha], a 42-ft-high (12.8-m) bronze figure of Buddha, cast in 1252, and for a 30-ft-high (9.1-m) gilt and camphor statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. Kamakura was splendid as the seat of Yoritomo Yoritomo (Yoritomo Minamoto) , 1148–99, Japanese warrior and dictator, founder of the Kamakura shogunate. After a prolonged struggle he led his clan, the Minamoto, to victory over the Taira in 1185...... Click the link for more information. and his descendants (1192–1333); under the Ashikaga Shogunate (1333–1573) it was the government headquarters of eastern Japan. An earthquake in 1923 severely damaged the city.
Kamakura
Kamakura
a city in Japan on the island of Honshu, in Kanagawa prefecture, on Sagami Bay. Population, 139, 000 (1970). Kamakura is a city of great historical interest. It was founded on the site of the ancient Japanese capital of the period of the first shogunate (“the Kamakura era”). Articles of fine and applied art (luxury items and souvenirs) are produced in the city. There is a museum of fine arts and a huge bronze statue of Buddha dating from 1252. The site of Buddhist pilgrimages, Kamakura is also a tourist center and a seaside health resort.
The climate is humid and subtropical, characterized by monsoons. Winters are very mild, with average January temperaturesof 3°C. Summers are hot, with average August temperatures of26°C. Annual precipitation totals 1, 600 mm. The principal ther-apeutic remedies are heliotherapy, aerotherapy, and sea bathing(from June to the middle of October). Patients with functionaldisorders of the nervous system and diseases of the respiratoryorgans and patients suffering from anemia, overfatigue, andother complaints are treated in Kamakura. There are sanatori-ums, hydrotherapy and physiotherapy clinics, various sportsfacilities, hotels, boardinghouses, and comfortable sandybeaches.
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