KAMAKURA, where you'll see Japan's backbones that Tokyo does not show

Getting on a rapid train at Tokyo Station, you’ll arrive at the city of Kamakura in an hour or so.

 

The local city, located about 100 kilometers south from Tokyo, was the seat of the Japan’s first samurai or warrior government in the 13th century while Tokyo became the seat of the military government in the 17th century, 400 years after the Kamakura government was established. Needless to say, the epoch-making age in the Japanese history exerted a strong influence on the Japanese mind. 

 

I’d like to recommend you to see three Buddhist temples there as well as a famous  Shintoism shrine. The temples include Hase-dera, Kotoku-in and Engaku-ji. I’d say that it’s important to visit them in the order where I showed above. 

 

The first temple, the Hase-dera temple, is well-known for a Kannon image which is said to be curved in the 8th century. The standing image is around 9 meters high and characterized by ten small heads about its main crown, signifying the Deity of Mercy’s attempt to seek out all those in need of help. People believe that the Kannon Deity saves them from various hardships in their life, and they have donated small images to live up to its mercy.  So you’ll be surprised to see a large number of images in the precinct.   

The second one, the Kotoku-in temple, is famous for the great statue of Buddha, casted in the mid 13th century.  The seated Buddha, named Amida-Nyorai, is in the symbolized posture when Buddha enlightened 2500 years ago. It stands outdoors on the ground and is so huge and overwhelming with its height of 13 meters.  That is the main and only image of the temple, and people believe that he leads them to the Western Paradise or the Pure Land where they could be reborn and live a happy life if only they now chant the nenbutsu --- I obey the Amida sutra in Buddhism. --- to receive his protection. The temple is included in the Jodo or Pure Land sect of Buddhism.

The third one, the Engaku-ji Zen-Buddhist temple, was built in the late 13th century. It is located in the north area of the city while the former two temples are in the southwest. You’ll see greater architectures made of unvarnished woods, arranged in a line on a valley’s upslope towards the top of a mountain, surrounded by several- hundred-year-old cider trees which soar in the sky. What are impressive here is the structures such as gates and houses, not images of Buddha, which would indicate that the Zen philosophy is quite different from those of other sects of Buddhism.   In addition, the temple was strongly related to the national crisis we experienced in the century, the attacks by Mongol force which reached Europe. 

 

 

Each temple has its own idea for salvation, based on a sutra that it puts emphasis on among many Buddhist scripts that have been developed for 2500 years. People has come to accept each of them, depending on occasions, although it shows a different practice in a daily life. The ideas are now deeply incorporated into our mind to the extent of coexisting without any conflicts.  You might be able to find the differences in appearances of the images and the architectures.

 In addition, the city boasts the Tsurugaoka-Hachiman-gu shrine, one of the most popular Shintoism shrines, built in the 12th century when the military government was established there.  It enshrines Hachiman, the Shinto God of War, which gave proper indication to any visitor of the shoguns’ authority and prosperity.  You’ll be surprised to see its one-mile-long approach designed with the laws of perspective, heading from a beach to a hillside where the main alter house stands. There stand three red or vermillion gateways and a pair of stone-made dog-like guardian statues, which give you a completely different feeling from the Buddhist ones you see in the temples.

 

More than one million people visit here to celebrate the New Year’s Day.  This is also a reality of Japanese culture that you come across.  Coexisting would be a key word to gain access to the variety of Japanese culture.