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Kenchoji Temple in Kamakura

■Kenchoji Temple

Japan’s oldest Zen training monastery will be familiar to some readers through Lafcadio Hearn’s vivid descriptions in his 1894 book Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan. Founded in 1253 by the Chinese Zen Master Rankei Doryu, Kenchoji is the leading temple in Kamakura, long a center of Zen.

The Zen practiced here is the Rinzai sect, and on weekend evenings from 5 to 6 p.m. visitors are free to join seated meditation in the Hojo, or chief priest’s quarters, with advance notice.The grounds of the temple make for a pleasant stroll even for those not interested in meditating. Behind the Hojo there is a beautiful garden, and the grounds include a large number of attractive, interesting halls and subtemples, though due to massive fires in the 14th and 15th centuries none of them are original.

The only original building is a small belfry housing the Bonsho, a bell cast in 1255. The bell is a national treasure, and is too fragile now to be tolled regularly, though at New Year’s you can hear it rung 18 times, instead of the usual 108.

>>Access
8 Yamanouchi, Kamakura city, Kanagawa

JR Ofune station====(6 min. by JR Yokosuka line)====Kitakamakura station====(7 min. on foot)====Kenchoji Temple　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

-Matt Mangham

>>Hotels and Ryokans in Kamakura