Japan has plenty of places with incredibly dark histories, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at them. Kozukappara, for example, was an execution ground where 200,000 people were brutally killed among such hope-inspiring locales as the Street of Bones and the Bridge of Tears. Today, all that remains of it is a small cemetery in a heavily gentrified area.
A similar thing happened with the Harakiri Yagura, a small cave in the hills of Kamakura surrounded by dense forest and residential homes and just down the road from Toshoji-bashi, a lovely river bridge selected as one of the 100 Best Views of Kamakura. Standing among all this tranquility, it’s hard to believe that the area was the site of a bloody mass suicide and is now considered one of the most haunted places in the country … to the continued annoyance of local monks and residents.
The History of the Disemboweling Cave
The Hojo clan had been the de facto rulers of Japan for 150 years, ever since Hojo “You Sleep With My Husband, I Burn Your House Down” Masako became the wife of the first shogun, Minamoto Yoritomo, in the 12th century. This all ended when the Hojo’s trusted general turned on them, leading to the sacking of Kamakura, the clan’s seat of power, in 1333. One Hojo survived the attack (together with his demon sword), while the rest locked themselves in their family temple of Tosho-ji, set fire to it and committed harakiri ritual suicide by slicing open their bellies. Around 870 people died at the temple that day. A memorial to them was constructed in a tomb cave dug into a neighboring hill: the aptly named Harakiri Yagura.
Yagura are samurai tombs carved into rocks, and they are very common around Kamakura. But the one connected with the Hojo, also called the Hojo Takatoki Harakiri Yagura for the last head of the clan, is possibly the most famous of them all because of its tragic backstory. One legend even says that the cave is where Takatoki disemboweled himself after making sure his family got an “honorable” death at the temple. Stories like that tend to stoke the imagination. But in this case, they also stoke resentment among those to whom the place is more than just a spooky Halloween destination.
To Buddhists, the Harakiri Yagura Is a Sanctified Sanctuary
The Hojo helped popularize Zen Buddhism in Japan and were patrons of various temples in and outside Kamakura. It’s why local monks took pains to quickly cremate the bodies of the Hojo after their deaths and honored their spirits with the construction of the Harakiri Yagura, where no bones or urns have ever actually been found. Takatoki himself is buried at Engaku-ji Temple, with the rest of his family scattered around the old samurai capital. Some were apparently interred at Hokai-ji Temple, the successor of Tosho-ji created on the orders of Emperor Go-Daigo, the former enemy of the Hojo. He also had an additional Shinto shrine built on the grounds of the Buddhist temple to help soothe the spirits of the fallen samurai. While some take it as a sign of warding off ghosts, we shouldn’t forget that this is a real religion to a large portion of the Japanese population.
No one is, of course, forbidding people from believing in or telling ghost stories, as they are a big part of traditional Japanese culture. But the monks and locals draw the line at trespassing and desecration.
As Always, the Humans Are the Real Monsters
The Tosho-ji Ruins have long been fenced off, though that hasn’t really deterred people from jumping the gate to get close to the actual site where nearly 900 people took their lives. In the past, illegal parties with drinking have also been reported on the Tosho-ji grounds. Even the Harakiri Yagura has become the occasional venue for impromptu celebrations around Halloween or during summer. Summer really is the worst time for this sort of illegal activity. It’s when kids don’t have school and, with an abundance of free time, busy themselves with kimodameshi, i.e., “courage tests,” around supposedly haunted spots across the country.
In the past, Hokai-ji Temple tried to restrict access to the yagura by reminding people that the site is only for praying. As of this writing, however, the memorial tomb is completely off limits to everyone because of falling rocks, with signs all along the route to the yagura warning people of that. But looking at some of the other signs around the area, like the numerous ones against excessive noise, nuisance behavior and illegal trash dumping, one gets the impression that the locals see the land erosion as a blessing in disguise.
All that being said, the Tosho-ji Ruins are still worth a visit. The fence doesn’t obstruct the view of the historic site, and even though the approach to the Harakiri Yagura is roped off, you can walk past it and instead follow the Gion-yama Hiking Course that will take you through lesser-explored parts of Kamakura up to a scenic viewing point above the city. As for what to do on Halloween, Japan offers many alternatives that don’t involve trespassing or trashing Shibuya, so give those a try.