Hokkedo

 This is the site of Minamoto Yoritomo's grave. Minamoto Yoritomo was the first Shogun of Japan, and he chose Kamakura as the capital. This hilltop used to have Minamoto's temple, which housed his body. Samurai would come here to worship in the temple and venerate the Shogun. The temple was later destroyed.

This pillar marks the suspected location of the temple.

The Kamakuraga Shrine

 Look at all the cups!

 We suspect they were setting up for a wedding.

 The shrine.

Sugimoto-dera

 Walking up to the temple.

Sugimoto-dera is the oldest temple in Kamakura. It was established in the 8th century.

 These guys are scary.

 Millinophile noted that their muscle-definition-and-beer-belly combination was rather impressive, if you think about it.

 An incense burner.

 The main temple (the roof is thatched).

 Looking down the stairs of the temple.

 This Buddha likes pinwheels.

 A side shrine.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair remain strong in Japan, as evidenced by this Honda shop across from Sugimoto-dera. 

The Bamboo Temple

 Hokokuji Temple, also called the Bamboo Temple.

 The bamboo forest was pretty impressive.

 We suspect these are the Seven Lucky (Shinto) Gods of Japan.

 An actual Zen garden.

Kamakura, Part 3: The Hase-dera Temple

The last thing Millinophile and Chickadee visited in Kamakura was the Hase-dera Temple. 

Entrance to the temple grounds.

All of these little statues are bodhisattvas helping the souls of unborn children.

Lots of little statues.

The outside of a temple with an Amida Buddha. The main temple at Hase-dera has a giant statue of Kannon, the eleven-headed bodhisattva of mercy. The main temple was under renovation, so we couldn't take any pictures of the outside, and photography was not permitted inside.

The Buddhists ring this bell 108 times for the New Year.

An aerial view of Kamakura and the coast.

This is the Kyozo Sutra Archive. The turnable bookracks inside house thousands of sutras.  Supposedly, turning the bookracks bestows the same virtue as actually reading all of the sutras.

The gardens surrounding the temple were very pretty.

You can't really tell in this picture, but some of these flowers are white and some are lavender.

Pitcher plants!

 

Our camera's battery died while taking this picture, so please excuse the blurriness.  That petal is half light pink and half dark pink.

Kamakura, Part 2: The Giant Buddha

After we went to the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-guu Shrine, the group was dismissed to explore the area individually (and make it back to Yokosuka on their own). Millinophile and Chickadee decided to go see the Giant Buddha (Daibutsu).

 It is pretty big.

 Daibutsu is the Amida Buddha, the principle Buddha of Pure Land Buddhism.

For an extra 20 cents per person, you could go inside the Giant Buddha. Here's a slightly blurry picture of the inside of his neck/shoulders.

 We suspect these are the Pure Land Sutra.

 

To be continued...