Unkei: Women's Works and the Kamakura Shogunate

The Kanazawa Bunko is a samurai library built in the middle of the Kamakura period by Hojo Sanetoki, a member of the Hojo clan (Kanazawa Hojo clan), in his mansion in Mutsuura-sho Kanazawa, Kuraki County, Musashi Province (present-day Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama City). The exact date of its establishment is unclear, but it is thought to have been around 1275, the first year of the Kenji era, during Sanetoki's later years. The collection contains a wide range of books on politics, literature, history, and more, and the collection policy was passed down through three generations of Hojo clan leaders, Akitoki, Sadaaki, and Sadamasa, who continued to enrich the collection.

The Kanazawa Hojo clan shared the same fate as the Kamakura Shogunate in 1333, but thereafter the Bunko was managed by the neighboring Shomyoji temple and continued into modern times. The current Kanazawa Bunko was restored as a Kanagawa Prefectural Facility in 1930, and in 1990 was given a new look and is now operating as a medieval history museum. The Prefectural Kanazawa Bunko not only passes on to future generations valuable cultural assets that convey the various aspects of the Kamakura period, but also makes the results of its research and studies public through exhibitions and lectures, and strives to fulfill its role as a center for lifelong learning for the public.