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Published: September 14th 2007
Tsurugaoka...
Hachiman Gu Shrine...need to catch my breath after that one.Kamakura is about an hour southeast of Tokyo and is a quiet little city withstanding the hoards of pligrims that invade it to see the many temples that it holds. Dave and I were among them and found it spritually refreshing. The first one we visited was the biggest and most popular, Hachiman gu Tsurugaoka, built by Minamoto Yoritomo, the first Shogun in Kamakura in 1180s. It's got so much to see it really took our breath away. Kind of like Notre Dame, but with really scary statues of deities from Buddhism, and a lot of incense. We then head off down the road to Kencho-Ji, a very old and smaller complex that was just peaceful and light. Next, lunch break as one cannot pligrim on an empty stomache. Darn, the noodles were really good and I miss them now. Off to Engaku-Ji, the most important to me as a historian. The guy who repeled the Mongol Invasions (1274 and 1281) built this temple to commemorale the event. Just as I neared old Hojo's temple where he is buried, a cicada (a massive beetle that flie) hit me in the head. Is Tokimune Hojo trying to tell me I am studying
More of the same shrine
This was they busiest place we visited that day, don't let this picture fool you. the wrong end of the invasion???? Last but not least we headed to the quiet Jochi-Ji temple, with abundant folliage and some great rocks.
I decided that Dave needed a death march, so we hiked from the Jochi-ji temple to the Daibutsu, a beautiful course that has you going up and down on some seriously rugged terrain. It was perfect. I felt like a pligrim as we followed the rocky and sometimes very steep path. It was a living example of the Dao, or the way. Most Asian religions refer to it, Buddhism to Confucianism, but to actually feel it, the being and the not...well, Lao Shi said you can't explain it. You would have had to have been there.
That the self advances and confirms the ten thousand things
is called delusion;
That the ten thousand things advance and confirm the self
is called enlightenment.
- Zen Master Dogen Zenji, 1200 - 1253
Moon in a Dewdrop
Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi
The Daibutsu was very cool, a giant copper statue of a huge buddha, the fat happy one that is yet to come, built in 1252 and has withstood
The main building
Remember these are still fuctioning places so the monks still live here and this one of the training rooms. all manner of maddness, including eathquakes and tsunami to have us crawl around it. By this time, I am templed out and we head back to the station. The trip has a few more incounters for us, as we run into a live show where three women are playing drums. We also drop in on a very cute restaurant where the sweet old owner says in a granmotherly voice to me 'you were outside all day and now you're soaked with sweat, have some hot tea' Such a great meal too.
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