Enoshima Island

You would have to say that the island of Enoshima is certainly an enigmatic place. With its nearby neighbours of Kamakura, the famous Daibutsu Big Buddha statue, and a contemporary beach culture, it would also be easy to imagine that the island is over overlooked but this is far from the case.

Visitors are almost non-stop here. The local delicacies are a hit, the souvenir stores are energetic and the casual ambience of the island has just enough hint of the unfamiliar to make a trip here feel like a world away from Tokyo. Yet surely one of the island's secret appeals would have to be the fascinating mythology that surrounds its history.

Wherever you go on the island you will find shrines dedicated to the worship of Benzaiten who, as the stories have it, soothed a five-headed dragon that was causing the local people much grief. As part of that soothing, the goddess Benzaiten raised a mass of land from the sea which ended up becoming the island of Enoshima. By the time of the Edo Period, Enoshima had already become a major pilgrimage site for worshippers.

An addition to the creation story is the visit by Hojo Tokimasa, the first regent of the Kamakura shogunate in the 12th century. Praying at the shrine, Tokimasa received a prophecy by a mysterious lady who some say was the goddess Benzaiten herself. As part of this prophecy, it is said that she left behind three dragon scales which Tokimasa decided to then used as his family's crest.

As you walk around the island, you will notice that dragons are everywhere, and all of them stem from the island's relationship with this most mysterious of beasts.