Virtual Old Kamakura 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #4 Kaizo-ji Temple

     On March 24, 1185, Fujiwara Kagekiyo (?-1196) was fighting in the Battle of Dan-no-ura,belonging to the camp of the Taira Clan.  In the battle, the Taira Clan was destroyed by the Minamoto Clan.

     On March 2nd, 1195, the Buddhist ceremony commemorating the completion of Todai-ji Temple,Nara, was held.  Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, took part in the ceremony from Kamakura.  Kagekiyo seized the opportunity and tried to assassinate Yoritomo.  Kagekiyo was captured and was confined in a cave near Kewai Cutting, Kamakura.  He is said to have starved to death.  His daughter, Hitomaru, built Koyo-an Hermitage by the cave and enshrined his guardian deity, the statue of Ekadasamukha, who has 11 faces.

     At the precincts of the hermitage, a temple was built.  The temple declined, and another temple was founded by Fujiwara Nakayoshi in 1253 by the order of Prince Munetaka (1242-1274), the 6th shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate.  The temple burned down when Nitta Yoshisada (1301-1338) intruded into Kamakura through Kewai Cutting to overthrow the shogunate.  In 1394, Uesugi Ujisada (1374-1416) founded Kaizo-ji Temple in the precincts by the order of Ashikaga Ujimitsu (1359-1398), the second Kanto Deputy Shogun under the Muromachi Shogunate.

Address: 4 Chome-18-8 Ogigayatsu, Kamakura, Kanagawa 248-0011

Phone: 0467-22-3175