Review questions from the real quiz with answers, explanations and sources. Think it through first, then reveal the correct answer.
This is a selection from the question pool — the real quiz also draws questions you won’t find here.
Last updated: 2026-09-14
Ten questions make up Kamakura's calling card: the open-air bronze Buddha, the great shrine at the head of a raised promenade, the green train line running to Fujisawa, a beach that opens only in summer, a temple wrapped in bamboo, a cluster of monasteries beyond the northern hills, a pigeon-shaped confection, a note tied to a period drama, and the railway crossing that draws photographers from around the world. These are the fixtures of any guidebook's first page, asked with one extra step of precision. Clear all ten and you could lead the walk yourself.
Correct answerSagami Bay
Kamakura's coastline curves along Sagami Bay, taking in the beaches of Yuigahama and Zaimokuza before reaching the cape of Inamuragasaki, prized for sunset views of Mt. Fuji. Local legend holds that in 1333 the rebel general Nitta Yoshisada threw his sword into the sea here and prayed to a dragon god for the tide to withdraw.
Source:Kamakura City: Beaches
Correct answerEnoden
Enoden, the Enoshima Electric Railway, opened in 1902 and runs about 10 kilometers between Fujisawa and Kamakura on a single track. Certain stretches thread so close to houses that the train seems to brush past front doors, while other stretches hug the coastline, making the ride notable for its constantly shifting scenery.
Correct answerKotokuin
Kotokuin, a Jodo-sect temple, enshrines the Great Buddha of Kamakura, a National Treasure statue roughly 11.3 meters tall and said to weigh about 121 tons. Casting is thought to have begun in 1252, and the original hall that once sheltered the statue was destroyed by a tsunami in 1498, leaving the Buddha to sit in the open air ever since.
Source:Kotokuin: The Great Buddha and Kotokuin's Buddhist Sect
Correct answerTsurugaoka Hachimangu
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu traces its founding to 1063, when the deity was invoked from Kyoto's Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine by an ancestor of Minamoto no Yoritomo. Yoritomo later moved it to its present site as he settled Kamakura, and it became the guardian shrine of his shogunate and the wider samurai world. Its grounds still center on the Dankazura promenade and the Maiden dance hall.
Correct answerYuigahama
Yuigahama Beach usually opens from early July through the end of August, its gently sloping sand lined with seasonal beach huts that make it Kamakura's most popular swimming spot. In 2016 it became the first Blue Flag-certified beach in Asia, a status the beach has kept by renewing certification each year since.
Source:Kamakura City: Beaches
Correct answerHokokuji
Hokokuji, a Rinzai Zen temple founded in 1334, is known for the roughly 2,000-stalk bamboo grove behind its main hall, which has earned it the nickname “Bamboo Temple.” Inside the grove, the teahouse Kyukoan lets visitors sip matcha while taking in the view of the swaying bamboo.
Correct answerZen temples
Kita-Kamakura Station sits at the heart of a cluster of Zen temples counted among the Kamakura Five Mountains, including Engakuji, Kenchoji, and Jochiji, close enough together that visitors can walk from one temple gate to the next. The station's own platform borders Engakuji's grounds directly, so its main gate comes into view moments after the ticket gate.
Correct answerHato Sable
Hato Sable, Kamakura's signature confection, has been made by Toshimaya since the shop opened in 1894. The story traces the biscuit's origin to a Western-style treat a foreign visitor once gave the founder, Kubo Kujiro, who shaped it like a dove because two facing pigeons form the character for “eight” on a plaque at his revered Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, where pigeons still throng the grounds today.
Correct answerThe Taiga Drama Hall
To coincide with the 2022 NHK period drama 'The 13 Lords of the Shogun,' set in Kamakura, the city opened a limited-run 'Taiga Drama Hall' inside the Kamakura Museum of Literature and Art on the grounds of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. Exhibits of costumes worn by the cast and panels tied to real historic sites around the city drew large numbers of visitors during the run.
Source:Kamakura City: '13 Lords of the Shogun' Promotion Council
Correct answerTrue
The railway crossing beside Enoden's Kamakura-Kokomae Station is said to be the model for the opening scene of the manga and anime 'Slam Dunk,' prized for the view where the sea, the platform, and the crossing line up in a single frame. In recent years it has become a pilgrimage spot for fans arriving from across Japan and overseas, especially from China and Taiwan.
Source:Nikkei: 'Slam Dunk Pilgrimage' — The Crossing at Kamakura-Kokomae Station
From here, fifteen questions that make even longtime residents pause: why the next stop on Enoden carries the name it does, why the city needed its cut-through passes in the first place, the legend behind a spring said to multiply any coin washed in it, the whitebait dishes and dried delicacies that define local eating, and the doctrinal line that separates one Zen temple's school from another's. Where a date matters, the prompts carry a hint. Picture the terrain and the history layered on top of it, and work through these one at a time.
Correct answerWadazuka
Wadazuka is the next stop on Enoden after Kamakura Station. Its name is said to come from a burial mound raised for those who died on the losing side of the Wada Rebellion in 1213, when the Wada clan was crushed by the Hojo regents, so the station name still carries a memory of that medieval conflict.
Correct answerBlue Flag
Yuigahama Beach became Asia's first Blue Flag beach in 2016, a certification that covers water quality, lifeguard and safety standards, and environmental education programs. Kamakura City has undergone the review and renewed the certification every year since, keeping the beach in a small international network of accredited swimming spots.
Source:Kamakura City: Beaches
Correct answerRinzai Zen
Kenchoji is the head temple of the Kenchoji branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism and ranks first among the Kamakura Five Mountains. It was founded in 1253 under the sponsorship of regent Hojo Tokiyori, who invited an eminent monk from Song China to lead it, and it is considered Japan's first monastery devoted purely to Zen training, rather than mixing several Buddhist teachings under one roof.
Source:Kenchoji: About Kenchoji
Correct answerKita-Kamakura Station
Engakuji's nearest station is Kita-Kamakura, and the platform sits so close to the temple grounds that passengers can practically see the main gate from the tracks. Stepping out through the ticket gate, visitors reach Engakuji's entrance within moments, an unusually tight pairing of station and temple even by Kamakura's standards.
Correct answerSurrounding hills
Kamakura sits ringed by hills on three sides, so its kiridoshi, or cut-through passes, were carved directly through those slopes to link the city center with the roads beyond. Besides carrying people and goods in and out, their narrow, winding form doubled as a defensive bottleneck that made any approaching army easy to funnel and stop.
Source:Kamakura City: Historic Sites, Scenic Places, and Natural Monuments
Correct answerUgafuku Shrine
Ugafuku Shrine is the formal name of the shrine popularly known as Zeniarai Benten. Tradition holds that in 1185 Minamoto no Yoritomo had a dream instructing him to enshrine a spring welling from a rock cave in the Sasuke valley, and the shrine is now famous for the belief that washing coins in that spring's water turns them into lucky money.
Correct answerMorito Shrine
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu sits at the center of Kamakura's Japan Heritage story, officially recognized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs and titled “Iza, Kamakura.” The story weaves the shrine together with the city's cut-through passes and shoreline scenery into a single narrative of the old samurai capital, and its list of contributing properties reaches well beyond temples and shrines to include homegrown traditional crafts as well.
Correct answerYabusame
Yabusame, a rite of mounted archery, is performed every September during Tsurugaoka Hachimangu's grand festival. Archers in the hunting dress of medieval warriors gallop the length of a 260-meter track, loosing arrows at targets set along the rail, with the results traditionally read as an omen for the year ahead.
Correct answerMinamoto no Yoritomo
Minamoto no Yoritomo, Kamakura's first shogun, began building out the city's infrastructure soon after he settled there at the end of the Heian period, developing temples and shrines and laying out Wakamiya-oji as its ceremonial main street. The avenue is said to have echoed Kyoto's grand Suzaku-oji boulevard, and it remains the city's central axis today.
Correct answerA valley surrounded by hills
Kamakura sits in a basin-like valley, hemmed in by hills on three sides and open to the sea on the fourth, which left only a few narrow approaches into the city. Getting in or out generally meant passing through one of its carved kiridoshi passes, so the terrain itself functioned almost like a natural fortress for the medieval capital.
Source:Kamakura City: Historic Sites, Scenic Places, and Natural Monuments
Correct answerHase
Kotokuin, home to the Great Buddha, sits in Kamakura's Hase district, the same neighborhood as Hasedera and its towering eleven-headed Kannon. Close to Yuigahama Beach and an easy walk from Enoden's Hase Station, the area draws many visitors who pair a stop at the Buddha with a visit to the nearby temple.
Source:Kotokuin
Correct answerWhitebait (shirasu)
Kamakura is known for shirasu-don, a rice bowl topped with fresh whitebait caught in Sagami Bay and landed at ports such as Koshigoe. Raw shirasu loses its texture quickly, so it is often only served on the day it is caught, which is why many restaurants pair it with boiled or sun-dried shirasu to keep the dish available year-round.
Source:Kamakura City Tourism Association: Kamakura Vegetables & Fresh Whitebait Markets
Correct answerTatami iwashi
Tatami-iwashi is a Kamakura-Shonan specialty made by spreading freshly caught young sardines out in a thin, unoverlapping sheet and drying them in the sun. The drying concentrates their natural sweetness and flavor, and the sheets are often simply toasted and finished with a splash of soy sauce as a favorite snack with drinks.
Correct answerJapan Heritage
Japan Heritage is a designation created by the Agency for Cultural Affairs starting in fiscal year 2015, recognizing not individual landmarks but the historical narrative that ties a region's heritage together. Kamakura's story, titled “Iza, Kamakura,” draws on temples, shrines, and cut-through passes among other properties to tell that narrative as a connected whole.
Correct answer3
Kamakura City opens three swimming beaches each summer: Yuigahama, Zaimokuza, and Koshigoe. All three offer gently sloping sandy shorelines lined with seasonal beach huts and staffed by lifeguards, drawing everyone from families with small children to groups of young surfers and swimmers.
Source:Kamakura City: Beaches
The last fifteen stand between you and any claim to real Kamakura expertise: when and how the samurai capital took the shape it still holds, how a hill-ringed terrain was put to work in a harbor and a network of cut-through passes, the pecking order among the city's great Zen monasteries, and which category of National Treasure covers a bronze statue versus a temple bell. This is footnote-level knowledge, including a question or two about the exact order of a shrine approach. Clear this tier and you are ready to contend for the top titles in the real quiz.
Correct answer1180
Minamoto no Yoritomo moved Tsurugaoka Hachimangu to its present site in 1180, the same year he entered Kamakura, relocating it from the earlier Yui Wakamiya shrine in Yui village. That relocation marked the starting point from which the shrine grew into the spiritual center of his shogunate and the wider samurai society.
Correct answerGokurakuji-zaka Cut-through
Gokurakuji-zaka is one of the seven historic cut-through passes ringing Kamakura, sitting beside Gokurakuji Temple as the city's western gateway. In the Kamakura period it connected to the road running toward Kyoto, and from its crest travelers could look out toward Yuigahama, making it one of the passes most closely tied to the sea.
Source:Kamakura City: Historic Sites, Scenic Places, and Natural Monuments
Correct answerHojo Tokimune
The ruins of Eifukuji, a National Historic Site, mark a temple Minamoto no Yoritomo built to mourn the dead — both allies and enemies — from the Oshu campaign, modeling its design on the two-story hall at Chusonji in Hiraizumi. Completed in 1194 with its two-story hall, Yakushido, and Amidado halls, it once ranked alongside Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and Shochojuin as one of Kamakura's three great temples.
Source:Kamakura City: Historic Sites, Scenic Places, and Natural Monuments
Correct answerEmperor Ojin
The Hachiman deity enshrined in Tsurugaoka Hachimangu's Main Shrine corresponds to Emperor Ojin, long venerated as a god of martial fortune. Minamoto no Yoritomo moved the shrine to its present site as he entered Kamakura and looked to this deity as guardian of both the new shogunate and its retainers.
Source:Tsurugaoka Hachimangu
Correct answerKenchoji Buddha Hall
Kenchoji's Butsuden, the Buddha Hall, is the central building enshrining its principal image of Jizo Bosatsu, standing at the heart of a straight north-south line running from the Main Gate through the Sanmon to the Butsuden and Hall of the Law, a layout typical of Zen temple complexes. Tradition holds that Jizo was chosen because the grounds had once served as an execution ground.
Source:Kenchoji
Correct answerBuddhist relics
Engakuji's Shariden is said to enshrine a relic of the Buddha and stands as a National Treasure representing Kamakura-period Zen architecture. The present hall is traditionally said to have been relocated from a nearby convent after the original building was lost to fire.
Source:Engakuji
Correct answerSculpture
The Great Buddha of Kamakura is registered as a National Treasure under the category of sculpture rather than architecture. It is a rare case of an immense outdoor bronze image being valued and protected specifically for its artistic merit as a work of sculpture.
Source:Kanagawa Prefecture: Historic Sites, Places of Scenic Beauty and Natural Monuments
Correct answerLoss of the Great Buddha Hall
Kamakura's Great Buddha was originally housed inside a hall, but a massive tsunami triggered by the 1498 Meio earthquake swept the building away, leaving the bronze figure exposed to the open air ever since. That roofless silhouette has since become one of the defining images of Kamakura itself.
Source:Kotokuin
Correct answerYuigahama Station
The Kamakura Museum of Literature occupies the former villa of Maeda Toshinari, the 16th head of the Maeda family that once ruled the Kaga domain, and opened as a literary museum in 1985. It was established to collect and display manuscripts and personal items from more than 300 writers connected to Kamakura, including Natsume Soseki and Kawabata Yasunari, and the building is itself one of the properties making up Kamakura's Japan Heritage story.
Correct answerHokaiji
Hokaiji stands on the site of the Hojo regents' residence, used by the clan from Hojo Yoshitoki onward until it fell with the Kamakura shogunate in 1333. Tradition holds that Ashikaga Takauji, acting on Emperor Go-Daigo's orders, had the temple built to console the spirits of the Hojo dead, and it is also known as "the bush-clover temple" for the hagi flowers that bloom there each autumn.
Correct answerEngakuji
Engakuji's bronze bell, known as the Ogane, was cast in 1301 under the ninth regent Hojo Sadatoki and is the largest of its kind in Kamakura, registered as a National Treasure. It is not rung as a matter of routine; its deep tone is heard only a few times a year, most famously at midnight on New Year's Eve.
Source:Engakuji: About Engakuji
Correct answerNagoe Kiridoshi / Asaina Kiridoshi / Daibutsu Kiridoshi
Kamakura's well-known kiridoshi passes include Nagoe, Asaina, and Daibutsu, alongside others like Gokurakuji-zaka, Kamegayatsu-zaka, Kewaizaka, and Kobukuro-zaka. Together they are known as the Seven Entrances of Kamakura, and they served as the main gateways in and out of a city hemmed in by hills on three sides.
Source:Kamakura City: Historic Sites, Scenic Places, and Natural Monuments
Correct answerKamakura-bori
Kamakura's Japan Heritage story, "Iza, Kamakura," includes not only temples and historic sites but also traditional crafts such as Kamakura-bori. Having grown out of the carving of ritual implements for Zen temples, the craft is treated in the story not merely as a local specialty but as a cultural property that carries Kamakura's history in its own right.
Correct answerKamakura Station → Nino Torii → Dankazura → Tsurugaoka Hachimangu
The approach from Kamakura Station to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu runs out onto Wakamiya-oji, through the Second Torii gate, along the raised promenade of Dankazura, and up a final flight of stone steps to the Main Shrine. The promenade is said to have been built at Yoritomo's order as a prayer for his wife Masako's safe childbirth.
Correct answer5
The Kamakura Five Mountains comprise five Rinzai Zen temples: Kenchoji, Engakuji, Jufukuji, Jochiji, and Jomyoji. The ranking system, established by the shogunate between the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, ordered the temples not by size or age but by an official rank of prestige the shogunate itself assigned to each.