Kenchoji Temple

In my recent wanderings around northern Kamakura, I had the chance to visit the most impressive temple in Kamakura. Not only is it the oldest Zen training monastery in Japan, it is also ranked first of the five great zen temples of Kamakura. It was, in a word, incredible.



This is Sanmon gate; a massive gate that dates from 1754. It was the largest temple structure I have seen so far, but I have yet to visit the Buddha temple in Nara. I plan to, as well as other places, when I return to Japan in a few weeks. I am leaving for America soon.


This is an extremely old bell cast in 1255 and is designated a national treasure by the Japanese government.



This is a Butsuden (Buddha Hall). It was originally part of a mausoleum in Zojo-ji Temple in Tokyo. It was moved to Kamakura in 1647.

I saw this Buddha image in a travel guide and it was very nice to see it in person at last.

Basically, Kenchoji temple contains a lot of old buildings like this that might appear boring on the outside but house very beautiful things on the inside.

This is what the inside of the second building in this line of temple structures contained.

This scared me when I saw it. I believe this is supposed to depict the “living Buddha”. In some areas to the northwest of Tokyo (around Sendai), many dedicated Buddhist would mummify themselves while still alive. A gruesome process that involved drinking poisonous tree sap and eating only nuts and seeds while performing vigorous activity. Basically, the intense exercise and lack of food removed body fat, while the tree sap removed fluids from their bodies. I might go to northern Japan and see one of these some time. If you want to see them now, head to this article here.

A depiction of Kannon is in the back. I was amazed at how many arms there were.

Also, in the building, on the ceiling is a really cool dragon painting. Took a few attempts to get it all in the picture.

This was a gate called Karamon (Chinese gate) that was toward the back of the series of temple buildings. The building behind this one was a no pictures area, but because I was alone, I took some anyways.

The “no pictures” building is the main hall and behind it was a nice pond. Some folks would have a seat in this peaceful area and just enjoy how quiet it was.

Hopefully, I’m not boring you with these temple articles. I don’t blog about ordinary temples because there is just so many of them in Japan that…well, they can get boring quick. They must have something unique or interesting before they will show up on my site.

This is a bamboo forest towards the back of the temple complex. It was very windy the day I went and the bamboo were clanking against each other. It is also near the gateway to the Hansobo shrine which I thought was especially cool because of the army of Tengu guarding it, high on the hill.

The Tengu are mythical monster-spirits (Yokai) in Japanese legends and are depicted as human-like but with bird like characteristics. Some Tengu were later depicted with long noses. They are said to be creatures of the forest and mountains and are said to be good protectors.

I first found out about the Tengu from my favorite Japanese game series, Touhou. Aya is a fictional Tengu newspaper reporter in the Touhou game series. She is sometimes depicted with bird like characteristics as well in some artworks.

Aya also has a fan similar to the one this guardian Tengu has.



I took about 10 mins, just photographing this large army of Tengu. There seem to be about 12 of them at least.

The actual shrine at the top was rather bland but there are two reasons people come visit it. Behind the shrine there is a viewing platform on the top of the hill. The other reason is there are trails that go around the Kamakura area starting at the top of this hill.

My view from the top was poor facing towards the temple because of where the sun was but the other side of the mountain allowed me to see all the way out to Yokohama and landmark tower.


Hope I didn’t bore you. ^^; I thought Kenchoji temple was worth an article by itself but I am interested in things like Japanese history and ancient art.

I am going to America soon, so I’ll try to put out a few more anime figure/Dollfie Dream photoshoot articles when I get over there. If you’re coming for Japan articles mostly, I will be back in a few weeks and plan a lot more traveling (if we are not underway).

Almost forgot directions. ^^;
1.) Take the JR Yokosuka line from Shinagawa station to Kita Kamakura station.
2.) At Kita Kamakura station, exit and turn left. Continue along the street.
3.) The walk is around 10 mins long to Kenchoji Temple. When you cross over the railroad tracks, you are almost there.

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