In the fifth month of 1333, Nitta Yoshisada, who had raised an army in Kozuke, closed in on Kamakura with a great force.
Kamakura was a natural fortress, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on the fourth. Cuttings had been opened through the hills, but all were strongly held by Hojo troops and could not easily be broken. The Nitta army attacking the Gokurakuji cutting was thrown back time after time and lost many men. The road along the shore was blocked too, where the cliff of Inamuragasaki jutted into the sea and the waves broke against it. Offshore, Hojo warships lay in a line, shooting arrows.
On the night of the twenty-first of the fifth month, Yoshisada stood on Inamuragasaki and looked out over the sea. He took off his helmet, drew the gold-mounted sword from his waist, threw it into the sea and prayed:
"I have heard that Amaterasu of Ise, founder of the land of Japan, is in her true form Dainichi Buddha, and appears on the sea in the form of a dragon god. My lord the emperor, her descendant, drifts on the western sea because of traitors. I, Yoshisada, now take up the axe to face the enemy, to fulfill the way of a subject. My purpose is only to help the state and save the people. Dragon gods and the eight guardians of the inner and outer seas, look upon your subject's loyalty, drive back the tide ten thousand leagues, and open a way for our three armies."
Then, at dawn that night, the tide at Inamuragasaki suddenly went out more than twenty blocks, leaving a wide tidal flat. The warships lined up offshore were carried far away by the ebbing tide.
Yoshisada's army raced across the flat in one rush and poured into the town of Kamakura. The town went up in flames, and Hojo Takatoki killed himself with his clan at Toshoji. So the Kamakura shogunate, which had lasted nearly a hundred and fifty years, fell.