page_title: Tomb of Minamoto no Yoritomo
section_title: Remains of the Hokke-dō
hierarchical_section_title: Tomb of Minamoto no Yoritomo / History / Remains of the Hokke-dō
caption_attribution_description: English: The stele on the spot where the last incarnation of Minamoto no Yoritomo's Hokke-dō used to stand in Kamakura's Nishi Mikado neighborhood.
context_page_description: The tomb of Minamoto no Yoritomo is a monument in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, located some hundred meters north of the site where the palace called Ōkura Bakufu, seat of Minamoto no Yoritomo's government, once stood. Although there is no evidence his remains are actually there, it is commonly assumed to be the resting place of Minamoto no Yoritomo, founder and first shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate. The cenotaph consists of a 186 cm gorintō surrounded by a stone tamagaki, and was built during the Edo period, far after the shōgun's death in 1199. In the course of history, the site's prestige has attracted other structures, so that now it is occupied by the Site of the Hokke-dō, Shirahata Shrine, and the black stone stele commemorating the Hokke-dō and the mass suicide of the Miura clan. A couple of hundred meters further to the east lie the yagura of the Miura clan, the twin tombs of Oe no Hiromoto and of his son Mōri Suemitsu, and the grave of Yoritomo's illegitimate son Shimazu Tadahisa. The grave of Yoritomo and the ruins of the Hokke-dō are national Historic Sites.
context_section_description: The Hokke-dō was Yoritomo's personal temple, which was destroyed, moved and rebuilt several times in the course of its history and which is no longer extant. On the site where it used to stand before it was demolished in 1872 there are now a shrine called Shirahata Shrine and a stone stele which reads: 
  The Hokke-dō originally enshrined Yoritomo's tutelary goddess [Shō-Kannon] but, after his death, was turned into his grave. When in June 1217 (Kempō 5, 5th month) Wada Yoshimori rebelled and set the Ōkura Bakufu on fire, this is where shōgun Sanetomo found refuge. Also, on August 7, 1247 (Hōji 1, 5th day of the 6th month), Miura Yasumura barricaded in here to resist the onslaught of Hōjō forces, but was defeated. He therefore gathered 500 members of his clan and committed with them mass suicide, dyeing the ground in red and black with their blood.
  A Hokke-dō (法華堂 lit. "Lotus Sūtra hall") is today a Tendai hall whose layout allows walking around a statue for meditation. The purpose of walking is to concentrate on the Lotus Sūtra and seek the ultimate truth. In Yoritomo's time however the term simply meant someone's funerary hall. That use of the word had its origin in the fact that the Lotus Sūtra (Hokkekyō) was usually read during funeral ceremonies. 
  Built in 1189 as Yoritomo's personal temple, at his death in 1199 it became his grave and there were performed his funerary rites. The Hokke-dō however assumed its present name only the following year, in occasion of Yoritomo's yearly funeral rites for that year.  Likely a building of a certain size, it had as its dōshi (officiating monk) the famous holy man Eisai and, according to the Azuma Kagami, it was visited by Hōjō Tokimasa and the powerful of the shogunate. 
  The main object of worship chosen by Yoritomo was a 6 cm silver statue of Shō-Kannon, which seems to attest that the temple wasn't built simply as a grave for the shōgun.
caption: The stele on the spot where the Hokke-dō used to stand.
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