S P O T ／ SPOT-345

Ofuna Kannonji Temple (Ofuna Kannon)

大船観音寺おおふなかんのんじ

Rising from a hilltop just west of Ofuna Station in Kamakura, Kanagawa, this Soto Zen temple is famous for its colossal white-robed Kannon statue standing about 25 meters tall. What makes it remarkable is that the figure is not a full body but only the upper half — a bust. From the hill, only the gleaming white face and shoulders of the bodhisattva gaze gently down over the town, appearing without warning from train platforms and street corners all across the city, a singular silhouette that has become the symbol of Ofuna. Construction began in the early Showa era, was interrupted by the war, and was finally completed in 1960 — a modern colossal Buddhist image that visitors can even enter and view from within. A direct branch of the great Soto Zen temple Sojiji, its principal object of worship is the Sho-Kannon Bodhisattva, beloved as a giant statue praying for peace.