Hōkoku-ji is probably the single most photographed spot in Kamakura and, unusually, it entirely deserves its reputation. The temple's bamboo grove — a dense stand of several hundred moso bamboo stalks rising twelve metres or more — creates a cathedral-like canopy of green with shafts of light filtering through. At the back of the grove, a small tea house serves matcha with a sweet, with the bamboo as a backdrop.
The temple itself, founded in 1334, is a Zen foundation of secondary historical importance. The grove is the main reason to come. The effect is genuinely remarkable — the sound of bamboo in the wind, the particular quality of filtered light, the way the grove shuts out the world around it.
Hōkoku-ji is in the eastern part of Kamakura, the Jomyoji area, about 20 minutes by bus from Kamakura Station (bus direction Kanazawa-Hakkei). The eastern temple valley — Jōmyō-ji, Zuisen-ji, Sugimoto-dera are also here — is less visited than the western circuit and rewards a separate half-day.