Kasamori Kannon

Locally knownKnown to people who live here. Not in the international guidebooks.

Researched and written by Hinato

Kasamori Kannonshiho-kakezukuriChonanBando pilgrimageImportant Cultural Property

Photo: Pany2019 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · original

A visit to Kasamori Kannon starts before the gate — how you approach it is part of what the site is asking of you.

The hall at Kasamori stands on top of a rock outcrop and is held up on all four sides by a lattice of timber posts of different lengths, following the shape of the rock underneath. The technique is shiho-kakezukuri, four-sided suspended construction, and this is the only building in Japan that uses it — Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto and the hall at Nachi are built out from a slope on one side, but nothing else stands on legs all the way round.

The temple was founded in 784 and the hall dates from 1028, rebuilt since but to the same structure, and is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property. You climb a staircase inside the timber cage and come out on a veranda above the tree canopy. It is the thirty-first station of the Bando pilgrimage, it costs ¥300, and there is a 1,000-year-old camphor tree at the bottom with a hole through it you can walk through.

What to know before you visit

Opening hours

8:00 AM – 4:30 PM (April–September) | 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM (October–March) | Hall closed in rain

Closed: Open year-round, weather permitting

When to go

Late November for autumn colour | April–May for fresh green

Admission fee

¥300 adults | ¥100 children | Free parking for 50 cars

How long to allow

45–60 minutes

How to reach it

Access notes

302 Kasamori, Chonan, Chosei District. By Kominato bus from JR Mobara Station on the Sotobo Line to the Kasamori stop, then a short walk; or by car from Mobara-Chonan IC on the Ken-O Expressway. The hall closes in rain. Admission ¥300 adults, ¥100 children. Free parking for 50 cars. Phone.

What locals know

**Rain closes the hall.** The staircase and veranda are timber and exposed, and the hall shuts in wet weather. Check the forecast, because the grounds alone are not the reason to come. **Look at the legs before you go up.** From the base you can see how every post is a different length, cut to meet the rock at whatever height it happens to be. That is the whole engineering idea and it is invisible once you are on the veranda. **Winter closes half an hour earlier.** 4:00 PM from October to March, 4:30 PM in the warmer months, and last entry is before that. **Walk through the camphor tree.** A thousand-year-old kusunoki at the foot of the steps has a hole through the trunk that visitors pass through for luck. It is easy to walk past. **Combine with the Boso railways.** Kasamori is inland Chiba, near the Kominato and Isumi lines, and works as a stop on a day crossing the peninsula by rail and bus.

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