Nikaidō (二階堂) is the name of one of the administrative units ("towns", chō or machi) of Kamakura, a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km south-south-west of Tokyo. Nikaidō lies immediately to the east of Nishi Mikado and Yukinoshita[1], and used to be called Higashi Mikado[2]. The name is still sometimes used. In it lie famous temples and shrines like Zuisen-ji, Egara Tenjinsha, Kamakura-gū and Kakuon-ji[3]. It's in Nikaidō that first Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo built Yōfuku-ji (永福寺)[4], one of his most important temples. It was probably part, together with Yukinoshita, of the Ōkura Valley that gave its name to the Ōkura Bakufu, Yoritomo's first government[3].
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After his wars with the Taira clan and Ōshū's Fujiwara clan, in 1189 shogun Yoritomo founded a temple called Yōfuku-ji to comfort the souls of the samurai that had died in them[5]. The temple was erected in a location next to today's Kamakura-gū. Its main hall was a two-story building called Nikaidō, which was copied from Chuson-ji's Daichō-in Nikaidō (大寿院二階堂) in Hiraizumi, a building the shogun had greatly admired[5]. In time, that famous building gave its name to the entire area where it stood[5]. According to another theory, however, the name comes from that of an important clan vassal of the Minamoto, also called Nikaidō, because that's where the clan's mansion used to stand[3].
Yōfuku-ji was expanded several times, finally becoming a great temple with many pavilions and a great artificial lake. It was often visited by Yoritomo, his wife Hōjō Masako, and their descendants, who liked spending time there[5][3]. The temple no longer exists, but exactly when and how it was destroyed isn't known[5]. We do know that at the end of the Muromachi period it stopped appearing in written records[5] and that it burned down many times, the last we know of in 1405[3]. The area where it used to stand is now public property, and the city of Kamakura plans to turn it into an historical park[5].