Engaku Temple

Engaku-ji is one of the Five Great Zen Temples of Kamakura and the head temple of the Engakuji branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. It was founded in 1282 by the regent Hojo Tokimune as a memorial for the dead of both sides of the Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281, an unusually conciliatory gesture in the middle of the Kamakura period. The first abbot was the Chinese Chan master Wuxue Zuyuan, who had recently fled the Mongols in southern China. The 14th-century Shariden hall, said to enshrine a tooth of the Buddha, is a National Treasure and is considered the purest example of Chinese-influenced Karayou architecture in Japan. From Kita-Kamakura station a path climbs through a Sanmon gate and dense bamboo to a contemplative compound of tea houses, a Zen rock garden and a famous bell cast in 1301.