May 18, 1333

Siege of Kamakura (1333)

Nitta Yoshisada's forces begin their assault on Kamakura

At dawn Nitta's soldiers set fire to the villages ringing Kamakura — and by nightfall the Hōjō still held every mountain pass into the city.

Genkō 3, fifth month, eighteenth day

The date usually printed as 18 May is a medieval Japanese lunisolar date. Converted by the consulted chronology, the eighteenth day of the fifth month of Genkō 3 falls on 30 June 1333, and that is the day Nitta Yoshisada began the direct assault on Kamakura.

His victory at Bubaigawara had driven surviving bakufu troops back inside the shogunal capital, and he followed them.

Nitta divided his army to attack three approaches: Gokurakuji, Kobukurozaka and Kewaizaka.

The first day settles nothing

At dawn his forces set fires in the villages around Kamakura and were fighting before noon. The Hōjō defenders generally held their positions.

The city was neither entered nor destroyed on the eighteenth day. Kamakura fell on the traditional twenty-second day of the fifth month — 4 July 1333 in the converted chronology, five days after the assault opened.

Sources differ between the twenty-first and twenty-second days for the final collapse; Japanese reference works and the Kanagawa Prefectural Archives generally commemorate the twenty-second.

Tōshō-ji

Within days of the city falling, Hōjō Takatoki and many supporters died at Tōshō-ji, ending effective Hōjō control of the Kamakura bakufu. The clan itself was not exterminated — Hōjō Tokiyuki escaped and later attempted a restoration.

The cave shown to visitors as Takatoki's suicide place is a traditional commemorative site; official archaeological material locates the last stand at Tōshō-ji.

The Taiheiki, a literary war chronicle, says Nitta threw a gold-mounted sword into the sea and asked eight dragon gods for a path around the defences; a coastal passage at low tide is plausible, but the episode is not independently verifiable.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Traditional date

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Traditional date. Conventionally dated here; the research places it at 1333-06-30.

What the sources leave uncertain

The listed date 18 May is a traditional Japanese lunisolar date, not a Gregorian date. The consulted conversion gives 30 June 1333 in the Julian calendar then used in Europe.
Sources differ between the twenty-first and twenty-second days for the final collapse; Japanese reference works and Kanagawa Prefectural Archives generally commemorate the twenty-second day, conventionally converted to 4 July.
The sword offering and miraculously receding tide come from the Taiheiki, a literary war chronicle. A coastal passage at low tide is plausible, but the supernatural episode is not independently verifiable.
Medieval casualty and army totals in narrative chronicles are not sufficiently reliable for inclusion as verified numbers.