Who rules Japan? This question has a modern ring to it and has been belabored by many a student of political science. It is of considerable interest to ask this question, for a change, about the past. "The Gates of Power" does just that. It investigates the "enigma of Japanese power" in the Middle Ages, focusing on the period from the late 11th to the late 14th centuries.
The table of contents speaks of monastic developments, temples, religious conflicts, Buddhas and "kami" or gods. Yet this book has very little to do with religion, that is, with the contents of a religious creed or creeds as understood today. Rather it is about political history and the system of government that prevailed in medieval Japan.
That religion and politics are separate entities is a modern idea that in former times had little basis in reality, in Japan or anywhere else. Religious institutions have always been about power, both spiritual and secular. In medieval Japan, no emperor could ignore the influence of Buddhist temples or, indeed, rule against them.