Ancient Kamakura

Visit date(s): October 23, 2024 (Autumnal equinox holiday)

Nearby sites on trip: None nearby

Overnight location: Tokyo, less than half hour walk from Tokyo station

Location(s): This order is mostly downhill from kita-Kamakura station, returning to Tokyo via tram and Kamakura station:
Engaku-ji
Kencho-ji (photo)
Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu
Wakamiya Oji
Kotoku-in, including the Daibutsu

Travel method(s): Train, tram and foot (9 km!). Most sites are built into hillsides, so there are a lot of hills and stairs. 

Travel duration: Train trip: normally ~ 1 hour each way. There were 2 delays for safety checks on our return trip. 

Visit duration: More than 5 hours in Kamakura. We also visited Zeniarai-Benten, Sasuke-Inari-Jinja and Hasedera during the visit.

OUV: The view from Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu down Wakamiya Oji is certainly impressive, demonstrating town planning. The temple buildings and landscapes illustrate the traditions, ideas and beliefs of samurai culture. Overall worthy.

Best of: The first 2 temples we visited are both zen — serene and calm places. 

Worst of: Tsurugaoka Hachiman gu was very crowded.

Kamakura is super popular no matter WHS or not. It doesn't really need the title to be a great visit. It was more or less rejected to be one anyway, but the Japanese state party decided to withdraw rather than get a rejection because they would otherwise be blocked from retrying. So instead Kamakura is now in limbo for many years, waiting to reshape it's niche as a world heritage site.

The main draw are Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and Kōtoku-in, with the The Great Buddha of Kamakura as depicted. I had already donated my front view to the website so I am using a close-up of it. One can even visit the inside as it is hollow. The temples along could easily be positioned as a world heritage site in today's criteria, with something like Quanzhou being in a similar position to have "influenced" or "be influenced by" something.

The main problem is that the political seat the samurai had in Kamakura is not possible to be seen anymore. It's a modern Japanese town, no skyscrapers, but many shops and retail avenues, roads everywhere. The title is actually misleading because the description talks about "cultural properties reminiscent of samurai culture" which doesn't fit in my opinion. Getting from temple to temple doesn't give you the feeling that the town belongs in-between them, at least not in the sense what the state party wishes you to believe. So I am agreeing with the soft rejection, or bad feedback, but believe …

Kamakura is up for discussion at the 2013 WHC, and I wonder if they will make the cut. Especially since Hiraizumi had such a hard time getting in recently, a site that with 'Buddhist Pure Land' eventually found its OUV. Kamakura is a better known site than Hiraizumi, mostly because it is close enough to Tokyo for a day trip (trains take less than an hour) and also for the 'Kamakura period' (1185-1333) when it was the most important city in Japan.

The nomination is called "Kamakura, Home of the Samurai". Its originality lies in the creation of the samurai society, that was to rule Japan until the 19th century. The core zone includes shrines, temples, residences, passes and Wakaenoshima port.

I visited it for a full day, walking from temple to temple. This isn't nearly as pleasant as in Hiraizumi - Kamakura suffers from a lot of traffic congestion. The sights are scattered around town, some are kilometres away - which could lead to some integrity issues when the core zone of the site is looked at. Most of the time you have to walk by the side of the road, without a real pavement. Signage is also sparsely provided. Fortunately I had picked up a map in English at the tourist information, so I knew where I had to look. Beforehand I had written down the names of the most praised temples, which proved to be a good idea since the map features no less than 61 temples …

I really liked Kamakura. The sites are easy to find and the city puts up signs for those who donft understand Japanese. There are many buses for tourists to take and a visitorfs center right inside the train station in Kamakura. The sites start in Kitakamakura (North Kamakura) and are an easy but a bit long walk down to the Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura. Then it is quickest to take the bus to the far away temples in the east of town and also south in the town of Hase. Hase has the Great Buddha statue and Hasedera with its Horse Headed Kannon Statue. The statues are beautiful and the people friendly. My favorites were the 5 Great Zen Temples. It is also a joy to wander off the beaten path to the smaller temples that are often quieter than their grand neighbors. A great place to visit!