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Today I went to Kamakura with my husband. It was about 1 hour trip from Tokyo.
Kamakura is one of the beautiful and historical places that was a capital from 1192 to 1333. Since Buddhism was popular among the shogun, lords, and even ordinary people like farmers and merchants at that period, there are lots of temples as well as shrines.
The day we went there was holiday so that Kamakura was extremely crowded. Our first destination was the Hase Temple and the Kamakura Buddha statue in Kotoku-ji. Kotoku-ji is a kind of mysterious that the temple has no building in their territory and there are no documents about who made the big statue. Though it used to be in a temple (like the Nara Buddha statue) at first, the building was destroyed by the tidal waves in 1498. The Buddha luckily survived. It is curious how huge the waves was. Even though visiting there in the morning (at 8am or so), many people already enjoyed it. As you can see in the picture, the Kamakura Buddha was tall. I was scared if he wanders around because his shoes was displayed.
Then we went to Kamakura-gu that honors
Morinaga Prince (1308-1335). He fought against the coup but was held captive in a narrow cave for 6 or 7months (I forget the exact period) then finally killed by a samurai in there. The samurai killed the prince midnight, so he had to wait to check the prince's dead until next morning. When checking it, the face of the prince looked so sad and angry. He got scared so much and forgot to bring the body to the new shogun. The unfortunate prince hadn't be dedicated anyway until Meiji Era. The Meiji Emperor might feel sorry and built the shrine for him. I could see the cave. It was cold, dark and scaring me. I prayed for him.
After that, we visited the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine. It was the main place at the Kamakura Era. When we went there, a couple had a wedding ceremony in a Shinto way, many visitors including us took pictures. Luckily the National treasure exhibit was held. There were lots of beautiful statues, pictures, and any other things like important letters from China to Japan(? I'm not sure).
We had a lunch, but my husband and I were still tired. We hung around, then,
Hase Temple
Buddha's foot stamps. What a cute shape...and were off to some temples, Kencho-ji and Engaku-ji. Eventually the sun was down, the landscape from the top of mountain in the Engaku Temple appealed to us. It was like time travel to 12th century. I don't have any ways to get to know how was Kamakura in 12th century though.
Kamakura attracts us so much. The only thing that I have a complaint is that I cannot visit all temples and shrines in a day thanks to the interesting history.
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