Jinmu-ji

photo by KENPEI · CC BY-SA 4.0

Founded in 724, it stands in thirteen hectares of woodland; you do not enter the hall without asking.

You can only get there by climbing: twenty minutes on foot from the JR station, thirty from the Keikyū one, and the whole way you are walking through the woods. At the top the grounds cover thirteen hectares, and there is a tree they call nanjamonja (the one whose name nobody knows), twenty metres tall and four hundred years old. ⚠️ You cannot enter the hall freely: you ask first, and if you go in you leave five hundred yen.

Founded in 724 by Gyōki on the orders of Emperor Shōmu. The woods around it are among the fifty scenic spots and the fifty selected forests of Kanagawa Prefecture; the 薬師堂 is a prefectural Important Cultural Property and is listed among the hundred selected buildings of Kanagawa. A trail links the temple to Takatori-yama, which is already in Yokosuka territory.

ℹ️ You can walk freely through the grounds and the woods, and the temple does not publish opening hours. ⚠️ **The hall is not open to visitors**: if you want to go in, alone or in a group, you must arrange it with the temple beforehand, and you pay 500 yen per person, a contribution introduced in December 2016 for the upkeep of the woods and the grounds. Photographing the statues without permission is prohibited, and so is leaving the path. Twenty minutes on foot from JR Higashi-Zushi Station, thirty from Keikyū Jinmuji Station.

🚉 Higashi-Zushi · 12 min walk

Sources: jimmuji.org · jimmuji.org · zushitrip.com

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