Jomyo-ji Temple

In a valley opening to the south along the Kanazawa Kaido, east of Kamakura Station, stands Jomyo-ji, the fifth-ranked of the Kamakura Gozan temples. Its formal name is Inariyama Jomyo Koriji Zenji, and locally it is also known as "Tokasan". It belongs to the Kenchoji school of the Rinzai sect, and its principal image is Shaka Nyorai.

Its history goes back to the Kamakura period. It is said to have been founded in 1188 (Bunji 4) by Ashikaga Yoshikane as Gokuraku-ji, at first a Shingon temple. In the Shoka era (around 1257-1259) Gessho Ryozen, a disciple of Rankei Doryu, the founder of Kenchoji, became head priest and turned it into a Zen temple, renaming it Jomyo-ji after the Buddhist name of Ashikaga Sadauji. Its founding priest was Taikyo Gyoyu. In 1386 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu fixed its place as fifth of the Gozan, and it reached its peak with 23 sub-temples. It later declined through fires and other causes, and the present main hall is said to be a reconstruction of 1756 (Horeki 6), in the mid-Edo period.

On entering the grounds, the first thing you see is the main hall. It has a hip-style roof of copper sheets (originally thatched), and timbers from the Muromachi period are used around the altar. Together with the guest hall and the kitchen building it forms a quiet scene in front of a dry landscape garden. The tea house "Kisenan", where you can enjoy matcha while looking at the garden, is a reconstruction in 1991 of a tea house built in the Tensho era (1573-1591).

In the graveyard behind the main hall stands a stone pagoda (hokyointo) inscribed with the year 1392, said to be the grave of Ashikaga Sadauji. The whole precinct is a National Historic Site, and the wooden seated statue of the founding priest Taikyo Gyoyu is a National Important Cultural Property, but it is not open to the public. Mount Inariyama is said to be where Fujiwara no Kamatari buried a sacred sickle, and this is one of the explanations given for the name "Kamakura".

The temple is also loved for its flowers and trees, including plum, camellia, tree peony, crape myrtle, ginkgo and maple, which color the grounds through the seasons. Next to the grounds is the "Ishigama Garden Terrace", a restaurant with an English garden, whose Western-style house was built in 1922 (Taisho 11) by a German architect.

Allow about one to one and a half hours if you sit down for tea. Sugimoto-dera lies to the west, so the temple fits easily into a tour of the temples of eastern Kamakura.