Enoshima
| Enoshima | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Sagami Bay | |
| Geographical location | 35 ° 18 '0 " N , 139 ° 28' 50" E | |
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| length | 1.2 km | |
| width | 600 m | |
| surface | 38 ha | |
| Highest elevation | 60.2 m | |
| Residents | 365 (2016) 961 inhabitants / km² |
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| main place | Enoshima | |
Enoshima ( Japanese 江 の 島 or 江 ノ 島 , German "island [in] the bay") is a small peninsula with a circumference of about 4 km at the mouth of the Katase River in Sagami Bay in Japan . Enoshima is a district of the city of Fujisawa and is connected to the Katase district on the mainland by a narrow coastal strip ( tombolo ) and a 600 m long bridge.
In 2016, 365 people lived on the 0.38 km² island.
Enoshima is located in the center of Shōnan , a resort area on the coast of Sagami Bay. As the bay is known for its picturesque scenery, it and Enoshima are frequented by many vacationers from the nearby metropolitan area of Tokyo - Yokohama .
Tourism and sightseeing
As early as 1920, over 400,000 visitors were visiting Enoshima every year. This rose to 13 million annually up to its peak in 1995 and fell again to 8 million in 2004/2005 due to the general increasing interest of the Japanese in foreign travel.
In 1934 the Japanese government recognized Enoshima as a place of historical value and scenic beauty, but withdrew it again in 1960.
caves
On the south side of Enoshima are the two Iwaya Caves. The first, located to the west, forks again in two sub-caves at a depth of 145 m, which are named after the Shingon Buddhist concept of the Ryōkai Mandara (Eng. "Mandalas of the two worlds"): Taizō (Japanese for Sanskrit : Garbhakośa , dt. "mother's womb") on the left and Kongō (Japanese for Sanskrit: Vajra , dt. "diamond") on the right.
According to Enoshima Engi , written by the Buddhist monk Kokei in 1047 , Enoshima was created by the goddess of music and entertainment Benzaiten . The Tennō Kimmei (509-571) therefore had a place of worship built in the caves in her honor. The cave later served as a place of asceticism for various Buddhist monks, including Taichō , Kūkai , the founder of Shingon-shū , and Nichiren , to which the schools of Nichiren Buddhism refer.
The left womb cave, which in addition to many Buddhist stone statues also houses a shrine for Amaterasu , is said to look like a vagina - especially in the back . After a rock fall in 1971, it was not reopened until 1993 and already had its one millionth visitor in the early summer of 1995.
The second, eastern cave is dedicated to a dragon deity who is considered the patron god of fishermen. According to legend, a 60 m long dragon (or a snake of the same size) answered the prayer for prosperity of Hōjō Tokimasa , the father-in-law of the founder of the Kamakura shōgunate Minamoto no Yoritomo , and left behind three scales, which later formed the Hōjō family coat of arms .
Enoshima shrine
The history of the origins of the shrine is closely related to the Benzaite worship in the Iwaya Caves and goes back to the 9th century. The shrine complex consists of three individual shrines, the Okutsumiya in the west, the Nakatsumiya in the center and the Hetsumiya a little deeper north of it.
In the course of the "Eliminate the Buddhas, destroy the Buddhist scriptures" movement , the worship of the originally Buddhist water goddess Benzaiten, through the worship of the three female Munakata- Kami ( 宗 像 三 女神 , Munakata sanjojin ) Tagitsuhime no mikoto ( Kojiki : 多 岐 都比売 命 ), Ichikishimahime no mikoto (Kojiki: 市 寸 島 比 売 命 ) and Takiribime no mikoto (Kojiki: 多 紀 理 毘 売 命 ), which are Shinto sea goddesses.
Samuel Cocking Garden
After the land on the island was freed by the "Eliminate the Buddhas, destroy the Buddhist scriptures" movement in 1880, the British art dealer Samuel Cocking bought a large part of it in the name of his Japanese wife, and built a 660 m² greenhouse with a wide variety of tropical species To erect plants, which opened as Enoshima Botanical Garden that same year . Initially there were about 5000 plants in it. In 2004 more than 500,000 visitors visited the area, which was newly opened in 2003 as the Samuel Cocking Garden ( 江 の 島 サ ム エ ル ・ コ ッ キ ン グ 苑 , Enoshima Samueru-Kokkingu-en ).
Chigogafuchi
Another attraction west of Okutsumiya is the 50 m high cliff Chigogafuchi ( 稚 児 ヶ 淵 ), from which one can see Mount Fuji . It was therefore named one of the 50 most beautiful landscapes in the prefecture.
Transport links
Enoshima can be reached by three railway lines: the Odakyū Enoshima Line, which stops at Katase-Enoshima Station, the Enoshima-Dentetsu Line, which stops at Enoshima Station, and the Shōnan Monorail, which stops at Shōnan-Enoshima Station.
There is also the Enoshima marina .
swell
- Enoshima Jinja Shrine ( Memento of August 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ): More detailed description of the Enoshima Shrine and other sights (English)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 藤 沢 市 の 人口 と 世 帯 数 . In: 藤 沢 市 . Retrieved July 24, 2016 (Japanese).町 丁字 別人 口 と 世 帯 数 （国 勢 調査 を 基準 と し た 推 計 値） 2016 年 (平 成 28 年) 7 月
- ↑ 江 ノ 島 （え の し ま） . In: 日本 の 島 へ 行 こ う . Retrieved March 20, 2016 (Japanese).
- ↑ ご 由 緒 ｜ 江 島 神社 に つ い て . Enoshima Shrine, accessed April 27, 2019 (Japanese).
- ↑ 江 の 島 ： 稚 児 ヶ 淵 . In: yoritomo-japan.com. Retrieved April 27, 2019 (Japanese).