is the name of a neighborhood (a ) in Kamakura

Kamakura, Kanagawa

is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...

, a city

Cities of Japan

||A is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the same level as and , with the difference that they are not a component of...

 located in Kanagawa

Kanagawa Prefecture

is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.-History:The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, about 50 km south-south-west of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. Nishi Mikado lies north-east of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū.

Etymology of the name

In 1180 the locality of in today's Nishi Mikado was chosen by Minamoto no Yoritomo

Minamoto no Yoritomo

was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan. He ruled from 1192 until 1199.-Early life and exile :Yoritomo was the third son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, heir of the Minamoto clan, and his official wife, a daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori, who was a member of the...

 as the seat of his government, which he called . (46 years later, after Hōjō Masako

Hojo Masako

was the eldest child of Hōjō Tokimasa by his wife Hōjō no Maki, the first shikken, or regent, of the Kamakura shogunate. She was the sister of Hōjō Yoshitoki, and was married to Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura period...

's death, the government's headquarters were transferred to a location near Wakamiya Ōji

Wakamiya Oji

is a 1.8 km street in Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan, unusual because it is at the same time the city's main avenue and the approach of its largest Shinto shrine, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū. Over the centuries Wakamiya Ōji has gone thorough an extreme change. A heavily...

 and renamed ). The compound had four gates, and the western one gave its name to the area it faced. The area east of Egara Tenjinsha, now called , used to be called Higashi Mikado, and the name is still sometimes used. Kita Mikado still exists as well but, like Higashi Mikado, it does not constitute a chō.

The Kamakurachō Seinendan stele in Nishi Mikado says:

Nishi Mikado is the area west of the Hokkedō. It was given this name because it faced the Ōkura Bakufu's western gate. In Nishi Mikado used to stand [temples called] Hōon-ji, Hojuin, Kōshō-ji, and Raikō-ji. Of them, only Raikō-ji still exists.

Points of interest

• Minamoto no Yoritomo's grave
• Raikō-ji
• The site of the Ōkura Bakufu
  Okura Bakufu
  (also called is the name of shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo's first government. It took its name from the location in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture, where Yoritomo's palace used to stand. Ōkura in Kamakura is defined as the area comprised between Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, the Asaina Pass, the Namerigawa...
  
  
• The site of Hokkedō
• Egara Tenjinsha shrine