What a Friend We Have in Jizōs 3

            ‘Even the deer near a village are afraid of us and stay deep in the 
             mountains. But these deer have rushed right into our midst. 
             This is a sure sign that the Minamoto forces are riding down 
             upon us from the top of the mountain!’
                         Ichinotani Castle Taira clan samurai, The Tale of the Heike

“It feels like a small fishing village.” Robyn said, as we began our walk down to the sea.
“It is.” I said. “And it was. And, for a little while, it wasn’t.” 
Kamakura is the story of clan conflict and decapitations and crab carapaces. Far back in the early Heian period, while the Vikings were subjugating the northern European coastline, the Emperor Kammu was trying to do the same thing to the Emishi ‘Hairy People.’ He disbanded his army, in favour of increasingly powerful clan warriors, at the head of whom he appointed a Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians, or Shōgun. The Emishi quickly succumbed to their own mounted archery tactics, which the clan warriors had skillfully adopted, but Kammu found his central power in Kyoto increasingly usurped by the monster hydra clan heads on their large country estates. They became ministers and bought their relatives magisterial positions. They amassed wealth through the imposition of heavy taxes, forced many farmers off their lands, and formed alliances to displace the traditional aristocracy. By the mid-Heian, their samurai had adopted characteristic Japanese weapons and armour, laid the foundations of the Bushidō ethical code, and came to dominate internal Japanese politics. The two most powerful families, the Taira and Minamoto, like feuding feudal Hatfields and McCoys, fought for control over the declining imperial court.
In 1156, rival sons of Emperor Toba, Sutoku and Go-Shirakawa, battled over succession, in the Hōgen Rebellion. Sutoku was supported by the Minamoto clan head Tameyoshi and his son Tametomo, while his other son Yoshitomo, and Taira clan head Kiyomori, sided with Go-Shirakawa.