Knitted and Architecture You Like or Which is Special (This week's Photo Hunt entry)

A few days ago, my good friend sbk put up an entry over at Pictures, Thoughts and Comments of one of the many temples of Kamakura I've not yet visited that made me add Engakuji to my ever-growing list of places I want to go to in the Kyoto of Eastern Japan in particular and Japan in general.  

It also gave me an idea of how I'd be able to weave together the two very different themes for Sandi's and Gattina's Photo Hunts this week. More specifically, on my own visits to Kamakura in 2011 and 2012, I had come across -- and taken photos -- of a statue in the grounds of Hokokuji that had been adorned with a knitted hat along with clothed bib as well as architecture I like and/or which I consider special in various parts of the town.

I've already got a number of posts up showing many of the buildings I've visited in Kamakura (such as the main buildings of the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine and those in the main temple complex at Kenchoji)  and also its famous Daibutsu (Great Buddha).  But this week's Photo Hunt gives me the opportunity to point out other Japanese religious architectural elements that I like.

One of these are torii -- the traditional gates found at Shinto shrines that symbolically mark the transition from profane to sacred spaces. And yes, some of them -- like those found showing the way to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine -- can be really big indeed.

Over on the western Hase section of Kamakura is Hasadera, a temple famed for its statue of Kannon (the goddess of mercy) and also its numerous Jizo figurines representing unborn, still-born, miscarried and aborted babies. At its front is not a torii -- because it's not a Shinto shrine but, instead, a Buddhist temple -- but, instead the wooden Sammon (main gate) from which hangs a large red paper lantern.  Granted that it's not as big as that to be found at Sensoji in Asakusa, Japan, but I liked this architectural element all the same -- and considered it worth a close-up photo that I'm finally sharing on my blog today! :)