Tsurugaoka Hachimangu

Hachiman, a deity of archery and war identified with the legendary Emperor Ōjin, was the protector of the Minamoto (Genji) clan. In 1063 Minamoto no Yoriyoshi founded a shrine to him near the shore at Yuigahama. When his descendant Yoritomo established his military government in Kamakura in 1180, he moved the shrine inland to the foot of the hill of Tsurugaoka and laid out the city around it.

The shrine forms the northern end of Kamakura's main axis. The avenue of Wakamiya-ōji runs straight from the beach to its gates, with the raised, cherry-lined walkway of Dankazura in its upper section. Inside the precinct, the Genji and Heike ponds flank the approach, the Maiden dance stage stands in front of a great stone staircase, and at the top is the vermilion main shrine, rebuilt in 1828 by the shogun Tokugawa Ienari.

For the warrior class, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu was the most important shrine of eastern Japan, and later shogunates and daimyo continued to support it. Today it remains the spiritual and ceremonial centre of Kamakura and one of the most visited shrines in the Kanto region.

After moving the shrine in 1180, Yoritomo rebuilt it following a fire in 1191, establishing the upper and lower shrines that exist today. The stone staircase was the scene of one of the most famous crimes of Japanese history: in 1219 the third shogun, Minamoto no Sanetomo, was murdered there by his nephew Kugyō, ending the Minamoto line of shoguns.

The shrine was maintained by the Ashikaga and Hōjō of Odawara and restored by the Tokugawa; the present main shrine dates from 1828. Until the separation of Shinto and Buddhism in 1868 it was a combined shrine-temple with a pagoda and Buddhist halls, which were removed in the Meiji era. A great ginkgo tree beside the steps, associated in legend with Kugyō's ambush, fell in a storm in 2010, and new shoots now grow from its stump.

Hachiman worship shaped the religious life of the samurai, and the shrine's rituals keep that heritage alive. The highlight of the annual festival in mid-September is yabusame, mounted archery in which riders in hunting costume shoot at targets from a galloping horse along the precinct's riding ground — a practice associated with the shrine since Yoritomo's time.

Other events include the Bonbori Festival in August, when paper lanterns painted by artists and writers line the approaches, and hatsumōde, when the stone stairs overflow with worshippers in the first days of January. The shrine is also a favoured place for Shinto weddings, often held on the Maiden stage.