A Day in Kamakura

This is the second most popular spot in Kamakura, even though it's a good twenty minute hike from the station.  Inside there were dozens of torii and the smell of incense.  There were a bunch of buddha statues as well, which was interesting.  Before the Meiji restoration, most shrines and temples had elements of both Buddhism and Shinto but due to this shrine's remote location (you can only reach it by this tunnel and it's surrounded by rock on all sides) they managed to keep their Buddhist icons.  The two Deva Kings that are at Jufuku-ji were originally at the Hachiman temple before the restoration.  The main deity of this shrine is


According to the sign at the entrance of the tunnel, the shrine was founded in 1185 when Minamoto Yoritomo on the day of the snake in the month of the snake dreamed of the God Ugafukujin. The god told him that "In a valley to the northwest, there is a miraculous spring that gushes out of the rocks. Go there and worship the gods of Shinto, and peace will come to your people." He found the spring and built a shrine for Ugafukijin. Later, the Shinto god was fused with Buddhist goddess Benzaiten, who is the incarnation of water. Ugafukujin is a god of harvest so people would come and wash their seeds in the spring in hopes of better harvests so the two gods came to be considered one and the same.  


The water of the spring inside Zeniarai Benzaiten's cave is supposed to have the power to multiply the money it comes in contact with.  This unique tradition of coming to wash your coins began in 1257 when Hojo Tokiyori came here and washed his coins with the spring's water, expressing the hope that they may be doubled.  People heard the story, and the tradition was born.  We found a huge pile of baskets inside the cave of the spring so we washed some money.  I could always use more.  LOL.   There was signage in Japanese all over with random English on it that said, "Dries naturally".  I wish I had taken a picture of it.  I think they meant that you should let the money air dry instead of wiping it dry with a hankerchief to keep the luck of the spring water. 


After dipping our money and exploring Zeniarai Benen we wandered around and found a sign pointing to another shrine, the next we were going to visit.  It was a path at the back of the shrine, leading down some stairs instead of going back through and walking down the hill.  We went that way instead, saving some time.  It was also deserted so we didn't have to fight with the crowds.  It went through the neighbourhood surrounding the temples so we could see all the nice expensive houses.


Our next stop was 佐助稲荷神社 Sasuke Inari Jinja, a shinto shrine at the top of a long set of stairs under a series of red torii and flanked by red flags.  It was cool and dark at the top because of all the trees and serene and quite.  The story goes that when Minamoto Yoritomo was in exile in Izu, he fell ill and an old man appeared to him in a dream.  The man held some herbs in his hand and showed them to Yoritomo, saying, “Make these into medicine, take it, and you will be cured.  When you recover, immediately take up arms against the Taira. Victory will be yours.”  Yoritomo asked the man his name and he replied, “I am the god of the hidden hamlet in Kamakura,” then vanished.  Yoritomo succeeded in establishing his government and believed the success was due to the advice of the old man. He later ordered his men to search for the abode of the god, and in Kamakura, west of the hidden hamlet they found a shrine. Yoritomo immediately replaced the old shrine with a newly-built one and named it Sasuke Inari.  The sa (佐) in Sasuke was part of the name Yoritomo held in his youth, 佐殿
(but pronounced Sukedono).  The suke in Sasuke means “to help.”   The name “Sasuke” was used as the name of this shrine because “Sukedono was helped by a god.” 


All over the shrine were these tiny fox figures that people left as an offering to the gods.  Apparently there are five deities enshrined here, according to the sign I read.  The main object of worship in an Inari shrine is a Shinto deity called Uka no Mitama, who is believed to be the patron deity of agriculture, grain in particular.  Inari shrines are closely associated with the fox, which is believed to be the messenger of the Inari deity. A pair of fox statues are always sitting in front of all Inari shrines just like a pair of dogs at other Shinto shrines.  Why it's a fox?  I don't know.  I thought they were cats at first, but after doing some research, learned they were foxes. 

After finishing at Sasuke Inari, we headed back down and made for the main attraction, the big Buddha.  When we got to the main road, there were hoards of people, heading to and from the Buddha.  There were souvenir shops all over the place and it was just... gawdy.  I doubt if Kotoku-in has any religious significance left amongst all the tourists.


In any case, I was impressed.  Nikki says the one in Hong Kong is bigger, and the statue of Kuan-yin in Taiwan is probably bigger than this, but I was awed.  The bronze statue of Amida Buddha stands at 13.35 metres tall, weighing 93 tons.  It was said to be contructed in 1252 but there is no proof that this is the orginally statue.  I made a prayer to Buddha with the rest of the people and got some postcards.  For 200 yen, we were there for a max of 10 minutes.  You can buy all sort of amulets and charms and for 20 yen you can go inside the Buddha but Justin said it's not that impressive so we didn't bother.  We didn't really feel like sticking around because we were getting hungry. 

Every place we looked into was either full or too expensive for our tastes (but not wholly unexpected in Kamakura) but we eventually made it to the Enoden train and took it back to Kamakura station and found a kaiten sushi restaurant and ate.  I had wanted to have something more local but we were getting desperate.  After eating we headed in the other direction of the station to see more stuff! 


We made our way through the crowded shopping street to 鶴岡八幡宮 Tsuruguoka Hachiman-gu, the most important shrine in the city.  When we go there, there was a wedding party taking photographs in front of the arched bridge.  Everyone was taking pictures so I thought, why not?  How often are we going to get to see a wedding party in full kimono?  The arched bridge was supposedly for the shogun's use only; there are two other flat bridges for use by the common folk.