Hase-dera (Kamakura)

Hase-dera (海光山慈照院長谷寺, Kaikō-zan Jishō-in Hase-dera), commonly called the Hase-kannon (長谷観音) is one of the Buddhist temples in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, famous for housing a massive wooden statue of Kannon.

One was enshrined in Hase-dera in the city of Nara, Yamato Province, while the other was set adrift in the sea to find the place with which it had a karmic connection.

The statue washed ashore on Nagai Beach on the Miura Peninsula near Kamakura in the year 736.

The cave, called benten kutsu (Benzaiten Grotto), contains a long winding tunnel with a low ceiling and various statues and devotionals to Benzaiten, the sea goddess and the only female of the Seven Lucky Gods in Japanese mythology.

The grounds of the temple are home to hundreds of small Jizō statues, placed by parents mourning offspring lost to miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion.

Jizō statues at Jizō-Do