Kōmyō-ji (Kamakura)

Tenshōzan Renge-in Kōmyō-ji
The Hon-dō (Main Hall)
Basic information
Location	1-19, 6-chome, Zaimokuza, Kamakura, Kanagawa 248-0013
Affiliation	Jōdo
Country	Japan
Website	Kōmyō-ji's official site
Architectural description
Founder	Hōjō Tsunetoki and Nenna Ryōchū (founding priest)
Completed	1243?

Tenshōzan Renge-in Kōmyō-ji (天照山蓮華院光明寺^?) is a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo sect in Zaimokuza, near Kamakura, Japan, the only major one in the city to be close to the sea. Kōmyō-ji is number one among the Kantō Jūhachi Danrin (関東十八檀林^?), a group of 18 Jōdo temples established during the Edo period by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and dedicated to both the training of priests and scholarly research. It is also the sect's head temple for the Kantō region. In spite of the fact it is a Jōdo sect temple, Kōmyō-ji has several of the typical features of a Zen temple, for example a sanmon (main gate), a pond and a karesansui (rock garden).

Kōmyō-ji has always enjoyed the patronage of Japan's powerful and is the only Buddhist temple in Kamakura to have had the privilege of being a daimyo's funeral temple. It was chosen for that role by the Naitō clan, feudal lords from today's Miyazaki Prefecture whose tombs are part of the temple's compound.

The temple, besides the usual Buddhist cemetery, maintains a special crypt for the ashes of house pets and other animals, and twice a year holds in the Main Hall ceremonies in their memory. The crypt was created and is maintained by a group of veterinarian volunteers.