Enoshima

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Enoshima" redirects here. For the Odakyu Romancecar, see Enoshima (Romancecar).

Enoshima (江の島) is a small island, about 4 km in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River, which flows into Sagami Bay in Japan. Part of the city of Fujisawa, it is linked to the Katase section of the same city on the mainland by a 600 meter-long bridge. Adjacent to the closest beach to Tokyo and Yokohama, the island and the nearby coast are the hub of a popular resort area.

Benzaiten, the goddess of music and entertainment, is also enshrined on the island. Enoshima is the center of Shonan, a resort area along the coast of Sagami Bay known for its scenic beauty.

The island is the scene of the Enoshima Engi, a history of the shrines on Enoshima written by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kokei in 1047 AD.

In 1880 after the 'Abolish the Buddha. Destroy Sakyamuni' policy of the new Meiji government had made the land available, much of the uplands was purchased by Samuel Cocking, a British merchant, in his Japanese wife's name. He developed a power plant and extensive botanical gardens including a very large greenhouse. Although the original greenhouse was destroyed in the 1923 earthquake, the botanical garden (now Samuel Cocking Garden) remains an attraction with over half a million visitors a year.

Enoshima is served by three railway stations: Katase-Enoshima Station on the Odakyū Enoshima Line of the Odakyu Electric Railway, Enoshima Station on the Enoshima Electric Railway and Shonan Enoshima Station on the Shonan Monorail.