Today we visited the Hase-dera temple near Kamakura. Hase is also the home of the Daibutsu, the great statue of Buddha that we visited last year. (Actually we visited two great statues of Buddha last year. The one at Hase is the one that’s outdoors and is greenish with verdigris.) We intended to go to the temple last year also but didn’t make it because it was rather hot and reaching it entails a climb up a number of stone steps. Today it was our main goal, and fortuitously the weather was cool so Tracie had little trouble making the ascent.
Unfortunately this visit would be much better described with pictures than in words, and I’m not even going to try to upload phots yet because I have no reason to think it would work any better now than it did before. (Even worse, in Kamakura I have to make a long-distance phone call just to get a modem connection.) It’s a startlingly beautiful area. Just inside the entrance is a lush garden of maples and other trees surrounding a large pond with a sizeable koi population. We arrived just in time to see someone feeding the koi. (I remain convinced that if one leads a particularly honorable life, one is reincarnated as a koi in a Japanese garden pond. They clearly live a very comfortable life.) There were a number of planters of enormous peonies in bloom. It’s much greener here this time than it was during our last visit. Last year we saw glorious amounts of cherry blossoms; this year we missed the height of the cherry blossom season but instead have seen lots of azaleas and peonies blooming, and most trees have leafed out.
We strolled through the garden and climed a couple of flights of steps to a small shrine for Jizo, surrounded by thousands of little stone statues. Jizo is the guardian diety of children, and the statues are dedicated to deceased children. It’s kind of a grim concept but it’s a lovely shrine in a calm, wooded setting. Tracie added an offering of flowers to the altar and we lit some incense, and then made our way up another flight or two of steps to the main temple area.
The temple sits near the top of a hill, providing an excellent view of the town and the ocean. On our way across the open area in front of the temple to an overlook we watched a small child try to befriend a white and grey cat. The cat wasn’t particularly interested in the child, nor was it much interested in Tracie’s overtures, but it eventually perched on one of the picnic tables on the overlook and posed for photos with other visitors. The overlook is also frequented by several large crows and an even larger hawk, both of which are not at all shy about grabbing food from people. There’s even a small wooden sign that appears to warn people about the crows. Crows sound different here; I think they’re saying “caw!” in Japanese.
We stopped at the overlook to admire the view and I had a coffee (yes, from a vending machine, of course). While we were there a bell started ringing at long intervals. While we were wandering back to the temple I realized that the bell was inside the temple and then heard a priest chanting. I quickly dug my recorder and binaural mics out of my pack, but unfortunately he finished chanting and ringing just as I went into the temple.
The temple houses a 10-meter-tall (at a guess) gilded statue, I think of Daikokuten, but maybe of Kannon. Honestly I don’t know and our guidebook isn’t clear. It’s a remarkable statue in any case. Once I was convinced that the priest wasn’t going to start chanting again we bought some incense from a temple maiden who seemed almost as charmed by us as we were by her.
There’s a cemetery next to the temple which I lingered at a bit to record the sounds of some birds. We made our way back down the steps to the garden. Tracie rested and admired the flowers while I walked through a cave and passages carved into the foot of the hill. The cave has a number of figures of various dieties carved into the walls, only dimly visible in the low light provided by candles and a few small electric lights.
We left the garden and returned to Kamakura by train. We stopped in the train station and I bought a couple of yakitori skewers and some fried potatoes for lunch. After eating we wandered through the dense shopping area in Kamakura. We were looking for a shop that we visited last year but either it’s no longer in business or we weren’t looking in the right place. We did find a small but well-stocked washi store, and Tracie bought five(!) 3/4-length rayon T-shirts in various colors and I found an origami book with instructions for folding a number of buddhas and related things.
Tracie just reminded me that I forgot to describe yesterday’s rickshaw ride around Kamakura, but I think that will have to wait for another time. I’m pretty tired now.
