Tōkei-ji Audio Guide

Tōkei-ji: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Tokei-ji

   Welcome to Tokei-ji, a Zen temple tucked into the hillside district of Yamanouchi in Kamakura, in Kanagawa Prefecture. Its full local name is 松岡山東慶寺, and its formal temple name is Tokei Soji Zenji. It belongs to the Engaku-ji branch of the Rinzai school of Zen. The temple is a short walk, about four minutes by the temple's own reckoning, from Kita-Kamakura Station on the Yokosuka Line. The temple was founded in 1285, in the Kamakura period, and for around 600 years, right up to the Meiji era, it did something remarkable. At a time when a wife could not simply leave her husband, Tokei-ji offered a way out. A woman who made it through its gate could, after a set period, be freed from her marriage. That is why people have long called it a temple of divorce, or a refuge for women. Over the next few minutes we will follow that story through the abbesses who ruled here, the strict rules of the refuge, and the quiet valley garden you can walk today. Keep the small size of the gate in mind as we go, because it tells you a good deal about how this place has changed.

2. 02

   Tokei-ji: A Nunnery of Princesses

   Temple tradition names Hojo Sadatoki as the founder and a nun called Kakusan-ni as the first abbess. Records of the temple's early nuns, including senior officers with titles such as head seat and temple steward, show that Tokei-ji was a sizeable nunnery connected to the Hojo family, who held real power in Kamakura. That much is well established. Then comes a royal chapter. The fifth abbess was Yodo-ni, a daughter of Emperor Go-Daigo. She is said to have entered the temple to pray for her brother, Prince Moriyoshi, who was killed. The temple is said to have held land around the area of today's Kamakura Shrine because of this link. From her time on, Tokei-ji was known as Matsugaoka Gosho, the Palace of Matsugaoka, and it was ranked second among the five great nunneries of Kamakura. In the Muromachi period the abbesses were often daughters of the Kanto shoguns' deputies, the Kanto kubo. A New Year ceremonial calendar of 1454 even mentions the abbess, called Matsuoka Choro, paying her respects to the Kamakura kubo. The most dramatic arrival came in the early Edo period. A daughter of Toyotomi Hideyori was saved as an adopted daughter of Lady Sen, and she entered Tokei-ji. She later became the twentieth abbess, Tenshu-ni, and the temple reached the height of its prestige under her.

3. 03

   Tokei-ji and the Refuge for Wives

   Picture Edo-period Japan. Law and custom allowed a husband to end a marriage easily by writing a letter of divorce, but a wife had almost no such power. Tokei-ji's temple rules offered her a remarkable exception. Over about six centuries it carried on a custom known as the cutting of ties, giving women a path to freedom. The procedure was strict. Once a woman had taken refuge here, her husband's divorce letter was addressed to the temple's office, the Kamakura Matsuoka Gosho, and was not handed to her. She then had to serve in the temple for three calendar years, a full 24 months. Only at the end of that time did she receive the letter and become free to marry anyone she chose. Her husband, by contrast, could remarry as soon as he had written the letter. So this was no instant escape. It was a long period of discipline that gave a woman a lawful way out, and that is why this quiet Zen nunnery came to be known as a place of rescue for women.

4. 04

   Walking Through the Valley of Tokei-ji

   Today you pass through a small mountain gate, only wide enough for two adults side by side. Long ago there was also a main gate on the old Kamakura road, but this little entrance is what remains. Beyond it, the grounds open into a yato, the narrow valley that is a hallmark of Kamakura's landscape. A stone path leads up the valley toward the cemetery, with the main hall, the study hall, the tea room and the treasure house arranged along it. Plum blossoms bloom in early spring, irises in June, and the climbing hydrangea called iwagarami adds more color through the seasons. A few details reward a closer look. The temple bell dates from 1350 and came from Fudaraku-ji; it is a cultural property of Kanagawa Prefecture. The temple's own earlier bell, cast in 1332, is now at Honryu-ji in Nirayama. The Suigetsudo hall houses a statue of the Water-Moon Kannon. After the Great Kanto Earthquake the statue stayed for a time at the Kamakura Museum of National Treasures. In 1959 the hall was built from a private Buddha hall that had belonged to the Kaga Maeda family in Higashi-Okubo. The Matsuoka Treasure House, built in 1978 on the site of the abbot's quarters, displays the temple's heirlooms. Beyond it, among tall trees, lies the cemetery. Since the temple passed to male abbots in the Meiji era, it has become the resting place of many well-known people, drawn by their admiration for the Zen master Shaku Soen.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you move on, a few practical pointers. The temple's address is 1367 Yamanouchi in Kamakura. Admission has been listed as 200 yen for adults and 100 yen for elementary and junior high school students. It opens from half past eight until half past four, closing at four from October to March. The treasure house opens at half past nine and closes at half past three. Those details can change, so check the temple's current notice at the entrance. As you walk the stone path, notice how modest everything feels, from the narrow gate to the quiet valley. Then remember that women once arrived here seeking a new start, and that princesses and royal daughters served as abbesses on this very hillside. See if you can spot the traces of different eras: the bell from 1350, the Water-Moon Kannon, and the graves of the people who followed Shaku Soen. Each one invites you to wonder what else this valley has quietly kept.