The Kamakura shogunate was Japan's first warrior government, establishing the samurai class's political dominance and twice repelling the Mongol invasion fleets in 1274 and 1281.
The Kamakura shogunate was overthrown in 1333 CE when Emperor Go-Daigo launched the Kenmu Restoration with the support of the turncoat general Ashikaga Takauji; forces captured Kamakura and the last regent Hōjō Takatoki committed suicide along with his clan in Tōshō temple.
Varley examines the war tales that define the samurai ethos; directly illuminates the Kamakura and subsequent warrior periods.
Volume 3 covers the Kamakura period in detail, from Minamoto Yoritomo's founding to the Mongol invasions and eventual collapse.
Japanese war epic recounting the Genpei War (1180-1185) and the fall of the Taira clan, whose events and compilation/oral transmission fall within and immediately border the Kamakura shogunate era; treated as a literary epic (akin to the Iliad) rather than a chronicle, so included as fiction-adjacent narrative.