Train passengers approaching Ofuna Station from any direction see her first. The snow-white bust of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy, rises 25 meters above the hillside of northern Kamakura, serene and enormous, weighing nearly 2,000 tons. She was supposed to be finished in the 1930s. Instead, war stopped her mid-construction, and she sat as an unfinished outline on the hilltop for two decades. When builders finally completed her in 1960, they wove into her concrete body something the original planners could never have anticipated: stones from ground zero of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What began as a devotional project by the Soto school of Zen became, through the accident of history, one of Japan's most quietly powerful war memorials.
Construction began in 1929 under the auspices of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism. The plan was ambitious: a colossal statue of Byakue Kannon, the White-robed form of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, one of 33 manifestations of the Buddhist deity said to prevent natural disasters, heal the sick, and assist women in childbirth. By 1934, the basic outline of the statue was complete, but the Pacific War brought all work to a halt. For years, the unfinished form loomed over Ofuna, a skeletal promise of mercy visible to every commuter passing through the station below. The Ofuna Kannon Society resumed construction in 1954, and the statue was finally completed in 1960, more than three decades after the first concrete was poured.
The construction method is as remarkable as the statue itself. The entire 25-meter figure was built from sections of poured concrete, every bucket carried and placed by hand. No concrete pump trucks were used. Workers shaped the goddess piece by piece, sculpting her serene expression and flowing robes through sheer manual labor over the course of years. The surface is periodically repainted white, maintaining the brilliant, almost glowing appearance that makes the statue such a striking presence against the green hillside. Inside the completed statue, visitors find a small museum and shrine, both open for viewing, where the scale of the work becomes tangible as you stand within the hollow interior of the goddess herself.
The most profound dimension of Ofuna Kannon lies in what was added during the post-war completion. Stones from ground zero of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were incorporated into the statue, embedding the memory of the atomic bombings into the physical body of a deity associated with compassion and the prevention of disaster. A flame originating from the atomic fires of Hiroshima burns within a mushroom-shaped memorial sculpture on the grounds. The juxtaposition is deliberate and devastating: a goddess of mercy carrying within her the material evidence of humanity's most destructive act. The temple that began as an expression of Buddhist devotion became, through the catastrophe of war, a monument to both suffering and the hope for peace.
Byakue Kannon, the specific form depicted in the statue, holds a particular place in Japanese Buddhist tradition. As one of 33 manifestations of Kannon, the White-robed form is associated with protection against natural calamity and with the welfare of mothers and children. The Soto school of Zen, which built and maintains the temple, is one of the two major branches of Japanese Zen Buddhism, known for its emphasis on shikantaza, or sitting meditation. The temple grounds, formally named Ofuna Kannon-ji, sit on a hillside in northern Kamakura, just steps from Ofuna Station. Admission costs 300 yen, a small price for standing in the presence of a figure that compresses a century of Japanese history, from pre-war ambition through wartime devastation to post-war reconciliation, into a single towering form of white concrete.
Located at 35.3529N, 139.5286E on a hillside in northern Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. The 25-meter white statue is a distinctive visual landmark, standing out prominently against the surrounding green hills. It is visible from significant altitude due to its white surface and hilltop position. Look for it just west of Ofuna Station and the Yokosuka Line railway. Nearest airports: RJTT (Tokyo Haneda) approximately 35 km northeast, RJTF (Chofu) about 35 km north. Tokaido Shinkansen tracks pass nearby to the south.