Kanazawa Bunko is a samurai library built in the middle of the Kamakura period by Sanetoki Hojo, a member of the Hojo clan (Kanazawa Hojo clan), in his residence in Rokuurasho Kanazawa, Kuraki District, Musashi Province (present-day Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama City). It is not clear when it was founded, but it is thought to have been around the first year of the Kenji period (1275), in the later years of the actual period. The collection covers a wide range of topics, including politics, literature, and history, and the collection policy has been passed down through three generations: Kentoki, Sadaaki, and Sadamasa, and the collection has been enriched.
The Kanazawa Hojo clan met their fate with the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, but from then on, the library was managed by the adjacent family temple, Shomyoji, and has continued into modern times. The current Kanazawa Bunko was rebuilt in 1930 as a facility of Kanagawa Prefecture, and since 1990 it has been restyled as a medieval history museum. The Prefectural Kanazawa Bunko not only passes on to future generations the valuable cultural properties that convey aspects of the Kamakura period to this day, but also makes the results of its research and research public through exhibitions and lectures, and also serves as a base for lifelong learning for everyone. We are working hard to achieve this goal.