Kenchō-ji

Hōkizan Chōju Zenji (宝亀山長寿禅寺) is a Rinzai Buddhist temple of the Kenchō-ji school in Yamanouchi (a.k.a. Kita-Kamakura), near Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It lies between two Kita-Kamakura landmarks, the entrance of the Kamegayatsu Pass and Kenchō-ji, the oldest Zen monastery in Japan. Chōju-ji is one of two bodaiji (菩提寺), or funeral temples, dedicated to Ashikaga Takauji, founder of the dynasty of shōguns that carries his name. (The other is Kyoto's Tōji-in.) In its garden there are a gorintō dedicated to the shōgun and a hōkyōintō containing some of his hair. Chōju-ji has recently opened for the first time its doors, and receives visitors from Friday to Sunday, 10 AM to 3 PM. The temple allows the use of pocket cameras, however professional and semiprofessional equipment are forbidden, the reason being that visitors should not visit the temple to take photographs.

Fugenzan Meigetsu-in (福源山明月院) is a Rinzai Zen temple of the Kenchō-ji school in Kita-Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. Famous for its hydrangeas, it's also known as The Temple of Hydrangeas (ajisai-dera). The main object of worship is goddess Shō Kannon (聖観音).

Nishi Mikado (西御門, Western Gate) is the name of a neighborhood (a chō (町)) in Kamakura, a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km south-south-west of Tokyo. Nishi Mikado lies north-east of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū.

Tsurugaoka Hachimangū (鶴岡八幡宮) is the most important Shinto shrine in the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is a cultural center of the city of Kamakura and serves as the venue of many of its most important festivals with two museums. For most of its history, it served both as a Hachiman shrine, and in latter years a Tendai Buddhist temple typical of Japanese Buddhist architecture. The famed Buddhist priest Nichiren Daishonin once reputedly visited the shrine to reprimand the kami Hachiman just before his execution at Shichirigahama beach. A former one thousand-year-old ginkgo tree near its entrance was uprooted by a storm on 10 March 2010. The shrine continues to serve as one of the Important Cultural Properties of Japan.

Yoko Ōji (横大路) is the name of a short street in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, which begins in front of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, the city's most important Shinto shrine and ends in front of Hōkai-ji. It is believed to be the street that passed in front of the so-called Ōkura Bakufu, seat of first shōgun Minamoto no Yoritomo's first government, which was in turn a section of the old Kanazawa Kaidō.

The tomb of Minamoto no Yoritomo (源頼朝の墓) (see photo below) is a monument in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, located some hundred meters north of the site where the palace called Ōkura Bakufu, seat of Minamoto no Yoritomo's government, once stood. Although there is no evidence his remains are actually there, it is commonly assumed to be the resting place of Minamoto no Yoritomo, founder and first shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate. The cenotaph consists of a 186 cm gorintō (a Buddhist stone stupa) surrounded by a stone tamagaki (a fence usually delimiting the sacred soil of a Shinto shrine), and was built during the Edo period (1603–1868), far after the shōgun's death in 1199. In the course of history, the site's prestige has attracted other structures, so that now it is occupied by the Site of the Hokke-dō, (the spot where Yoritomo's Hokke-dō, or funeral temple, used to stand during the Edo period), Shirahata Shrine (白幡神社, Shirahata Jinja) (not to be confused with the homonymous shrine part of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū), and the black stone stele commemorating the Hokke-dō and the mass suicide of the Miura clan. A couple of hundred meters further to the east lie the yagura (an artificial cave used during the Kamakura period as a grave or as a cenotaph) of the Miura clan, the twin tombs of Oe no Hiromoto and of his son Mōri Suemitsu, and the grave of Yoritomo's illegitimate son Shimazu Tadahisa. The grave of Yoritomo and the ruins of the Hokke-dō are national Historic Sites.

Eisho-ji (英勝寺) is a Jōdo-shū temple in Ogigayatsu, Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, and is the sole nunnery in Kamakura. The mountain name is Tokozan. Okaji no Kata, a concubine of Tokugawa Ieyasu, took the name Eishoin after her pabbajja and founded the temple. The temple is thought to be located at the site of the residence of Ōta Dōkan, who was ancestor of the found. Okaji no Kata bore Ieyasu a daughter, Ichihime, but she died very young. After Ichihime's death, Ieyasu ordered Okaji no Kata to become the adoptive mother of Tokugawa Yorifusa, who later reigned over Mito Domain. The founding priestess Gyokuhōseiinni was a daughter of Yorifusa. From its foundation, princesses of Mito Domain regularly became priestesses of Eisho-ji. Thus people called the temple "Mito palace" or "Nunnery of Mito". After the Meiji Restoration, the practice of obtaining priestesses from the Mito Domain was discontinued and influence of the temple waned. During the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, the temple gate was damaged but volunteers eventually rebuilt it on the original cornerstone, with the completion ceremony being held on May 16, 2011. The temple is the 6th temple of Togoku Hananotera 100 kaji located in Kamakura.

Kinpōzan Jōchi-ji (金宝山浄智寺) is a Buddhist Zen temple in Kita-Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It belongs to the Engaku-ji school of the Rinzai sect and is ranked fourth among Kamakura's Five Mountains. The main objects of worship are the three statues of Shaka, Miroku and Amida Nyorai visible inside the main hall.

Ōkura Bakufu (大蔵幕府 or 大倉幕府) (also called Ōkura Gosho (大蔵御所) is the name given in Japan to the first government of the shōgun Minamoto no Yoritomo. The name is that of the location in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, where Yoritomo's palace used to stand. Ōkura is defined as the area between the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, Asaina Pass, the Namerigawa (Nameri River) and the Zen temple of Zuisen-ji. Yoritomo's palace complex extended approximately from the Mutsuura Kaidō to the site of his tomb, and from the Nishi Mikado River (or Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū) to the Higashi Mikado River (about 800 meters by 600 meters). A black stone stele marks the center of the area where Yoritomo's government offices used to stand and carries the following words: 820 years ago, in 1180, Minamoto no Yoritomo built his mansion here. Having consolidated his power, he ruled from this mansion, and his government was therefore called the Ōkura Bakufu. He was succeeded by his sons Yoriie and Sanetomo, and this place remained the seat of the government for 46 years until 1225, when his wife Hōjō Masako died. It was then transferred to Utsunomiya Tsuji (宇津宮辻). Erected in March 1917 by the Kamakura-machi Seinendan [Young People's Association] In 1213, when Wada Yoshimori rebelled against the Hōjō regents in the so-called Wada Kassen, his son Asahina Yoshihide stormed into the Ōkura Bakufu and burned it to the ground. It was later rebuilt. Many powerful Gokenin had their mansions in Ōkura, which was therefore one of the most important parts of medieval Kamakura. The palace gave rise to the names of at least two other Kamakura neighborhoods, Nishi Mikado and Higashi Mikado, which mean respectively "Western Gate" and "East Gate". The area now called Nikaidō (二階堂) used to be called Higashi Mikado, and the name is still sometimes used. Kita Mikado still exists as well, but does not constitute a chō.

Zuirokusan Engaku Kōshō Zenji (瑞鹿山円覚興聖禅寺), or Engaku-ji (円覚寺), is one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa Prefecture to the south of Tokyo. Founded in 1282 (Kamakura period, the temple maintains the classical Japanese Zen monastic design, and both the Shariden and the Great Bell (大鐘, Ogane) are designated National Treasures. Engaku-ji is one of the twenty-two historic sites included in Kamakura's proposal for inclusion in UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. It is located in Kita-Kamakura, very close to Kita-Kamakura Station on the Yokosuka Line, and indeed the railway tracks cut across the formal entrance to the temple compound, which is by a path beside a pond which is crossed by a small bridge.

Kikokuzan Kongō Jufuku Zenji (亀谷山金剛寿福禅寺), usually known as Jufuku-ji, is a temple of the Kenchō-ji branch of the Rinzai sect and the oldest Zen temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Ranked third among Kamakura's prestigious Five Mountains, it is number 24 among the Thirty-Three Kamakura Kannon (鎌倉三十三観音, Kamakura Sanjūsan Kannon) pilgrimage temples and number 18 of the Kamakura Nijūyon Jizō (鎌倉二十四地蔵) temples. Its main object of worship is Shaka Nyorai.

Kinryūzan Shakuman-in Endon Hōkai-ji (金龍山釈満院円頓宝戒寺) is a Buddhist temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Often called Hagidera (萩寺), or "bush-clover temple", because those flowers are numerous in its garden, its existence is directly linked to a famous tragedy that on July 4, 1333 wiped out almost the entire Hōjō clan, ruler of Japan for 135 years. The temple was founded expressly to enshrine the souls of the 870 members (men, women and children) of the clan who, in accordance with the samurai code of honor, committed suicide on that day at their family temple (bodaiji) of Tōshō-ji to escape defeat. Together with ancient Sugimoto-dera, Hōkai-ji is the only temple of the Tendai denomination in Kamakura. Formerly a branch temple (寺末, matsuji) of the great Kan'ei-ji (one of the two Tokugawa family temples), after its destruction it became a branch of Enryaku-ji.