Tsurugaoka Hachimangū

One of the historical events the shrine is tied to is the assassination of Sanetomo, last of Minamoto no Yoritomo's sons.

Under heavy snow on the evening of February 12, 1219 (Jōkyū 1, 26th day of the 1st month),[note 2] shōgun Minamoto no Sanetomo was coming down from Tsurugaoka Hachimangū's Senior Shrine after assisting to a ceremony celebrating his nomination to Udaijin.[2] His nephew Kugyō, son of second shōgun Minamoto no Yoriie, came out from next to the stone stairway of the shrine, then suddenly attacked and assassinated him in the hope to become shōgun himself.[2] The killer is often described as hiding behind the giant ginkgo, but no contemporary text mentions the tree, and this detail is likely an Edo-period invention first appeared in Tokugawa Mitsukuni's Shinpen Kamakurashi. For his act Kugyō was himself beheaded a few hours later,[2] thus bringing the Seiwa Genji line of the Minamoto clan and their rule in Kamakura to a sudden end.

Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and the dankazura during the Edo period. Clearly visible its many Buddhist temples, later destroyed. In the lower right corner, tiny Moto Hachiman

Tsurugaoka Hachimangū is now just a Shinto shrine but, for the almost 700 years from its foundation until the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order (神仏判然令) of 1868, its name was Tsurugaoka Hachimangū-ji (鶴岡八幡宮寺) and it was also a Buddhist temple, one of the oldest in Kamakura.[3] The mixing of Buddhism and kami worship in shrine-temple complexes like Tsurugaoka called jingū-ji had been normal for centuries until the Meiji government decided, for political reasons, that this was to change.[4] (According to the honji suijaku theory, Japanese kami were just local manifestations of universal buddhas, and Hachiman in particular was one of the earliest and most popular syncretic gods. Already in the 7th century, for example in Usa, Kyūshū, Hachiman was worshiped together with Miroku Bosatsu (Maitreya).[5])

The separation policy (shinbutsu bunri) was the direct cause of serious damage to important cultural assets. Because mixing the two religions was now forbidden, shrines and temples had to give away some of their treasures, thus damaging the integrity of their cultural heritage and decreasing the historical and economic value of their properties.[3] Tsurugaoka Hachiman's giant Niō (仁王)} (the two wooden wardens usually found at the sides of a temple's entrance), being objects of Buddhist worship and therefore illegal where they were, had to be sold to Jufuku-ji, where they still are.[note 3][6] The shrine also had to destroy Buddhism-related buildings, for example its shichidō garan (七堂伽藍) (a complete seven-building Buddhist temple compound), its tahōtō tower, and its midō (御堂, enshrinement hall (of a buddha)).[3]

In important ways, Tsurugaoka Hachimangū was impoverished in 1868 as a consequence of this Meiji Era policy. The imposed, inflexible reform orthodoxy of this early Meiji period was unquestionably intended to affect Buddhism and Shinto. However, the structures and artwork of this ancient shrine-temple were not yet construed as important elements of Japan's cultural patrimony.[note 4] What remains to be visited today is only a partial version of the original shrine-temple.

From 1871 through 1946, Tsurugaoka was officially designated one of the kokuhei-chūsha (国幣中社), meaning that it stood in the mid-range of ranked, nationally significant shrines.

The Yui Wakamiya Yōhaijo, where one can pray at Yui Wakamiya without actually going there.

Music performance at Maiden

Tsurugaoka Hachimangū includes several sub-shrines, the most important of which are the Junior Shrine (Wakamiya (若宮)) at the bottom, and the Senior Shrine (Hongū (本宮)) 61 steps above.[8] The present Senior Shrine building was constructed in 1828 by Tokugawa Ienari, the 11th Tokugawa shōgun in the Hachiman-zukuri style.[9] Right under the stairway there's an open pavilion called Maiden (舞殿) where weddings, dances and music are performed.[8] A couple of hundred meters to the right of the Junior Shrine lies Shirahata Jinja (白旗神社), a National Treasure.[8] To the left of the Senior Shrine lies Maruyama Inari Shrine (丸山稲荷社) with its many torii.[8]

Near Shirahata Jinja one can also find the Yui Wakamiya Yōhaijo (由比若宮遥拝所), literally the "Yui Wakamiya Pray-at-a-Distance Place" (see photo). This facility, originally created for the shōgun's benefit, allows one to worship at distant Yui Wakamiya (Moto Hachiman) without actually going all the way to Zaimokuza.[8][10]

Right next to the Yui Wakamiya Yōhaijo there are two stones: pouring water on them should reveal on each the contour of a turtle. One of the islands in the Minamoto pond hosts a sub-shrine called Hataage Benzaiten Shrine (旗上弁財天社) dedicated to goddess Benzaiten, a Buddhist deity. For this reason, the sub-shrine was dismantled in 1868 at the time of the "Shinto and Buddhism separation" order (see below) and rebuilt in 1956.[8]

The dankazura and its cherry trees in full bloom

An unusual feature of the shrine is its 1.8 km sandō (参道) (approach), which extends all the way to the ocean in Yuigahama and doubles as Wakamiya Ōji Avenue, Kamakura's main street. Built by Minamoto no Yoritomo as an imitation of Kyoto's Suzaku Ōji (朱雀大路), Wakamiya Ōji used to be much wider and flanked by both a 3 m deep canal and pine trees (see Edo period print below).[11]

Walking from the beach toward the shrine one passes through three torii, or Shinto gates, called respectively Ichi no Torii (first gate), Ni no Torii (second gate) and San no Torii (third gate). Between the first and the second lies Geba Yotsukado (下馬四つ角) which, as the name indicates, was the place where riders had to get off their horses in deference to Hachiman and his shrine.[11]

Some hundred meters further, between the second and third torii, begins the dankazura (段葛), a raised pathway flanked by cherry trees. The dankazura becomes gradually wider so that, seen from the shrine, it will look longer than it really is.[11] The entire length of the dankazura is under the direct administration of the shrine.

The giant ginkgo before its uprooting

The stump of the fallen ginkgo has produced leaves

The ginkgo tree that stood next to Tsurugaoka Hachimangū's stairway almost from its foundation and which appears in almost every old print of the shrine was completely uprooted and greatly damaged at 4:40 in the morning on March 10, 2010. According to an expert who analyzed the tree, the fall is likely due to rot. Both the tree's stump and a section of its trunk replanted nearby have produced leaves (see photo).

The tree was nicknamed kakure-ichō (隠れ銀杏, hiding ginkgo) because according to an Edo period urban legend, a now-famous assassin hid behind it before striking his victim. For details, see the article Shinpen Kamakurashi.