Ofuna Kannon

Come out of the west exit of Ofuna Station and a huge white face looks down at you from the wooded hill across the road. This is the Ofuna Kannon, a bust of the White-Robed Kannon about 25 meters tall. Work began in 1929 on what was meant to be a standing figure, but the hilltop was too unstable, so the plan shrank to a bust, and donations dried up in the Depression. Construction stopped in 1934 and the unfinished statue stood abandoned for 23 years, until a foundation backed by Goto Keita, the head of Tokyu, completed it in 1960. In 1981 it became a Soto Zen temple, a direct branch of Soji-ji in Tsurumi. You can walk inside the statue, a quiet space dedicated to prayers for peace, with a notebook for messages to the Kannon. Nearby, a flame carried from the embers of Hiroshima has burned since 1990 at a memorial built by Kanagawa's association of atomic bomb survivors. The route from the station is short, but the final approach is a steep paved slope. The gate opens 9:00 to 16:00, entry is 300 yen paid at the gate, and there is no parking.