Kamakura Museum of Literature (Former Maeda Kamakura Villa)

Learn More about the Kamakura Writers

The museum is located on a hill from which there is a panoramic view of Sagami Bay. It was originally built as a villa for Toshinari Maeda, the 16th head of the Maeda family, formerly lords of the prestigious Kaga Domain on the Sea of Japan. After the Second World War, several people, including a Danish envoy and Eisaku Sato, a former Prime Minister, used this building as a villa. Yukio Mishima used this villa as one of the settings for his novel, "Spring Snow" (the first volume of The Sea of Fertility). Later Kamakura City acquired the villa and in 1985 it became the Kamakura Museum of Literature. The first director of the museum was novelist Tatsuo Nagai. This magnificent building is half-timbered in the Spanish style with beautiful art deco interiors. In front of the building, there is a large garden with a beautiful rose garden featuring rare roses named for their association with Kamakura, such as "Kamakura" and "Yabusame." The museum houses and exhibits original hand-written manuscripts, letters and other items belonging to writers who lived in Kamakura. The museum also stages special exhibitions. Eisaku Sato (1901-1975) Eisaku Sato, who served as the 61st, 62nd, and 63rd Prime Minister of Japan, used this building as his villa from 1964. He often rehearsed speeches on administrative policy on the third-floor balcony (currently not open to the public) in the middle of the night before regular sessions of the Diet. Sato had close ties with the Kamakura Writers. Writers such as Hideo Kobayashi, Tatsuo Nagai and Yasunari Kawabata dined with him at the villa.