Anyoin Hokyoin Pagoda

A Stone Pagoda Dated to the Year 1308

A short inscription cut into the west face of this stone pagoda fixes its age with rare precision. It reads "the seventh month of Tokuji 3, a year of the earth-monkey," a combination that corresponds to the summer of 1308, late in the Kamakura period. Because that year of carving survives on the stone itself, the Anyo-in Hokyoin-to is regarded as the oldest stone pagoda in Kamakura with a recorded date of construction. In 1954 it was registered as a national Important Cultural Property.

The monument stands behind the main hall of Anyo-in, a Pure Land temple in the Omachi district southeast of Kamakura Station. Carved from andesite, it rises to roughly 3.35 metres, tall enough that visitors tend to look up at it rather than down.

A hokyoin-to is a particular form of Japanese stone pagoda. The name comes from the Hokyoin dharani, a Buddhist text that early examples were built to enshrine, and over time the form became a common type of memorial and grave marker. Compared with the simpler five-tiered gorinto, a hokyoin-to is more elaborate: a square base, a cube-shaped body, a stepped cap with sharp corner projections that flare upward, and a tall finial rising from the top.

The Patron and the Mason Named in the Stone

The dating inscription is not the only writing on the pagoda. The base carries two more names that tell us who made it. On the west face, the central panel records the chief patron, a lay Buddhist named Kanko, while the panel to its right names the master stonemason, a man called Shin'a. Both are described with the title of a sami, a person who had taken simple Buddhist vows without entering full monastic life, which suggests the patron came from Kamakura's warrior society and that the work was commissioned by a group of devotees gathered around him.

Shin'a is the more traceable figure. His name also appears on a hokyoin-to at Hakone, in an inscription added in 1300, and that link places him within the lineage of stonemasons associated with Saidai-ji, the Nara temple whose Ritsu-school monks helped spread a distinctive style of stone carving across eastern Japan in this period. The Anyo-in pagoda is one of the works through which that lineage can be tracked.

One detail of the designation is worth knowing before you visit. The Important Cultural Property listing covers the pagoda "excluding the finial." The slender spire at the top is a later replacement and stands outside the protected designation, so the part that carries the historical weight is everything below it.

What to Look For

Approach the stone slowly and the carving rewards close attention. The cap is built up in steps, two below and five above, and the topmost step is shaped as a roban, a square plinth with two recessed panels on each face. At the four corners of the cap, the sumikazari ornaments rise in a double-arc profile with raised outlines and lean very slightly outward. That outward tilt is a small but reliable clue: it is characteristic of Kamakura-period work and shifts toward the vertical in later centuries.

Lower down, the base rests on a finely cut inverted-lotus pedestal of doubled petals, with framed panels known as kozama set into the sides. The proportions are confident rather than showy. This is the work of a mason who knew the form well.

Beside the large pagoda stands a smaller one. Tradition identifies it as the grave of Hojo Masako, the formidable widow of the shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo and the woman regarded as the founder of Anyo-in. Her posthumous Buddhist name, Anyo-in-dono, can be read on the smaller stone, and it is from that name that the temple itself is called Anyo-in. Masako died in 1225, well before the smaller pagoda was carved in the Muromachi period, so it is best understood as a memorial raised in her honour rather than a contemporary tomb. The large pagoda, by contrast, is traditionally held to mark the grave of Sonkan, the priest who founded Zendo-ji, an earlier temple that occupied this ground before Anyo-in moved here.

The Temple and the Azaleas

Anyo-in is a small temple, and that is part of its appeal. Its main image is Amida Nyorai, and it also enshrines a Senju Kannon known as the Tashiro Kannon, which makes the temple the third station on the Bando Thirty-Three Kannon pilgrimage. In front of the main hall grows a maki tree said to be more than seven centuries old, designated a Natural Monument by the city of Kamakura.

For many visitors the strongest reason to come is the azaleas. The grounds are planted with large Omurasaki azaleas, some old and broad enough to have earned the nickname "ghost azaleas," and in a good year they bloom in a wall of magenta around the gate and along the paths. The peak usually falls in late April and early May, around the Golden Week holidays, when the small temple draws a steady stream of visitors. Outside that window the grounds are quiet and green.

Photography beyond the gate was prohibited until April 2022 and is now permitted, with a few common-sense rules such as no tripods or monopods. The pagoda sits in the rear garden, so a short walk past the main hall brings you to it.

Getting There and Nearby

Anyo-in is about a ten to fifteen minute walk from the east exit of Kamakura Station, in the Omachi neighbourhood, a quieter quarter of temples away from the main tourist flow toward the Great Buddha and Hase. A local bus toward Nagoe also stops nearby. The district pairs well with other small temples within walking distance, including the moss garden of Myohoji and Ankokuronji, associated with the monk Nichiren.

The temple keeps short hours, generally from the morning to mid-afternoon, and asks a small admission donation at the gate. Hours and the donation amount have varied over the years and the grounds close around the New Year, so it is worth confirming current details before a special trip, particularly if you are timing a visit to the azaleas.