Jochi-ji Temple

A few minutes' walk from Kita-Kamakura Station, up a flight of stone steps among deep trees, stands Jochi-ji, ranked fourth among the Kamakura Gozan (Five Great Zen Temples). It is a Rinzai Zen temple of the Engaku-ji school, with the mountain name Kinpozan, and its grounds are designated a national historic site.

It is said to have been founded around 1281 to pray for the soul of Hojo Munemasa, the third son of Hojo Tokiyori, fifth regent of the Kamakura shogunate. At a time when many monks came from Song China, it is said to have had seven main halls at its height and as many as 11 sub-temples. A fire in 1356 destroyed the original buildings, the temple declined from the 15th century, and the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake brought down most of what remained. Many of today's buildings were rebuilt in the Showa era or later.

Just before the gate lies the Kanro-no-I, one of the Ten Wells of Kamakura. The plaque "Hosho Zaigon" on the gate is said to be in the hand of Mugaku Sogen, founder of Engaku-ji. Beyond the steps, the bell-tower gate is a rare Chinese-style gate for Kamakura, with the gate on the first floor and a bell and cusped windows on the second. It was rebuilt in 2007 and holds a bell cast in 1649. In the main hall, Donge-den, the principal images are the Three Buddhas (Amida, Shaka and Miroku), representing past, present and future. The earlier statues were lost to fire; the present wooden figures are Kanagawa Prefecture Important Cultural Properties. Behind them is a Kannon, one of the Kamakura 33 Kannon.

The grounds also hold a thatched shoin study hall built in 1924, the Hotei statue, one of Kamakura's Seven Lucky Gods, and the yagura, shrines cut into the soft Kamakura stone cliffs. Yagura were once used as places for monks' training and as tombs for people of high status, remains unique to Kamakura, where flat land is scarce. The temple precinct once extended to Tenchuho on the Kuzuharaoka-Daibutsu hiking course, where a monument erected in 1941 stands on the summit. Liked by cultural figures from the early Showa era, the temple was home to the film director Ozu Yasujiro and the painter Ogura Yuki, and the writer Shibusawa Tatsuhiko rests in its cemetery. The Kamakura Museum of National Treasures also displays the temple's wooden seated Jizo Bosatsu, an Important Cultural Property.

It is also loved as a temple of flowers: plum in February, Tachihigan cherry, weeping cherry and mountain cherry in April, hydrangea in June, Shumeigiku in October, camellia in November and red leaves in December each take their turn. Events include the Flower Festival on April 8, the photo memorial service on the second Saturday of November, and the New Year's Eve bell. Opening hours are 9:00 to 16:30, and a visit takes roughly 30 minutes to an hour. Toke-ji, Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji are close by, so it combines easily with a tour of the temples of Kita-Kamakura.