Kasamori Kannon

Kasamori Kannonshiho-kakezukuriChonanBando pilgrimageImportant Cultural Property

Chiba · Chonan

35.3982°N, 140.2024°E

The hall at Kasamori stands on top of a rock outcrop and is held up on all four sides by a lattice of timber posts of different lengths, following the shape of the rock underneath. The technique is shiho-kakezukuri, four-sided suspended construction, and this is the only building in Japan that uses it — Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto and the hall at Nachi are built out from a slope on one side, but nothing else stands on legs all the way round.

The temple was founded in 784 and the hall dates from 1028, rebuilt since but to the same structure, and is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property. You climb a staircase inside the timber cage and come out on a veranda above the tree canopy. It is the thirty-first station of the Bando pilgrimage, it costs ¥300, and there is a 1,000-year-old camphor tree at the bottom with a hole through it you can walk through.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

8:00 AM – 4:30 PM (April–September) | 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM (October–March) | Hall closed in rain

Closed: Open year-round, weather permitting

Entrance Fee

¥300 adults | ¥100 children | Free parking for 50 cars

Best Season

Late November for autumn colour | April–May for fresh green

Visit Duration

45–60 minutes

Getting There

Access Information

302 Kasamori, Chonan, Chosei District. About 35 minutes by Kominato bus from JR Mobara Station on the Sotobo Line to the Kasamori stop, then 5 minutes on foot; or 7 minutes by car from Mobara-Chonan IC on the Ken-O Expressway. Open 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM from April to September and 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM from October to March. The hall closes in rain. Admission ¥300 adults, ¥100 children. Free parking for 50 cars. Phone 0475-46-0536.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Rain closes the hall.** The staircase and veranda are timber and exposed, and the hall shuts in wet weather. Check the forecast, because the grounds alone are not the reason to come. **Look at the legs before you go up.** From the base you can see how every post is a different length, cut to meet the rock at whatever height it happens to be. That is the whole engineering idea and it is invisible once you are on the veranda. **Winter closes half an hour earlier.** 4:00 PM from October to March, 4:30 PM in the warmer months, and last entry is before that. **Walk through the camphor tree.** A thousand-year-old kusunoki at the foot of the steps has a hole through the trunk that visitors pass through for luck. It is easy to walk past. **Combine with the Boso railways.** Kasamori is inland Chiba, near the Kominato and Isumi lines, and works as a stop on a day crossing the peninsula by rail and bus.

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