leading the Minamoto clan in defeating the Taira clan, but for several reasons couldn't avoid a confrontation with him. After some victories, he tried to enter Kamakura, but was stopped at Koshigoe by a letter from Hōjō Tokimasa. He waited fruitlessly about 20 days at Koshigoe's Manpuku-ji, near Shichirigahama, then dictated to his attendant Benkei a letter for Yoritomo destined to become famous, the "Letter from Koshigoe", in which he complained that he had never betrayed his brother, but to the contrary had always faithfully served him. He had won for him important victories, but had received nothing but reproach and diffidence in return. Yoritomo didn't relent, so Yoshitsune gave up and left Koshigoe for Kyoto. The letter originally appears in the Azuma Kagami and is not believed to have been penned by Yoshitsune. It probably does however reflect his true feelings. The feud between brothers continued until a fugitive Yoshitsune was forced to kill himself. His six-week-old head preserved in liquor was then brought to the shōgun, who accepted it in Koshigoe in 1182. Yoshitsune is enshrined in Shirahata Jinja in Fujisawa. Inamuragasaki Emperor loyalist Nitta Yoshisada in 1333 invaded Kamakura, deposing its Regent Hōjō Takatoki and ending the 145-year old Kamakura shogunate. According to the legend, being unable to defeat Kamakura defenses on land, he went down to Shichirigahama and, at the impassable cape of Inamuragasaki, prayed to the god Ryūjin to withdraw the waves and let him through. The stele at , the tiny bay west of Inamuragaki, reads: 666 years ago on May 21, 1333 Nitta Yoshisada, judging Kamakura's invasion on land to be difficult, decided to try to bypass this cape. This is the place where, according to tradition, he threw his golden sword into the waves, praying to the sea-god to withdraw them and let him pass. (Stele erected in 1917) Nichiren in Shichirigahama Nichiren Buddhism was born in Kamakura, and the city is rich in places tied to both Nichiren and his life. Several of them are in Shichirigahama. This is because one of the shogunate's execution grounds was in Katase near Fujisawa in the spot where now Ryūkō-ji is, so, when Nichiren was condemned to death, he had to be brought there. Nichiren had been condemned for having written his Risshō Ankoku Ron, judged to be subversive by authorities. A miracle however saved him, because when he was about to be beheaded