Kamakura's proposed World Heritage sites


Kamakura, Home of the Samurai is a grouping of historic sites concentrated in and around the Japanese city of Kamakura, near Tokyo. The city gave its name to the Kamakura shogunate which governed the country during the Kamakura period. In 1992 the monuments were submitted jointly for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List under criteria i, ii, iii, iv, and vi.
In January 2012 it was announced that the Japanese government would formally submit the Kamakura site, along with Mount Fuji, for consideration by the World Heritage Committee in 2013. ICOMOS, the advisory body for cultural World Heritage sites, inspected the site in late 2012. The request was considered by the World Heritage Committee at its 37th session in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in September, 2013. ICOMOS recommended not inscribing the site on the List, stating that the historical aspects of the site had largely been supplanted by the modern city that grew up around it and thus the site lacked the integrity necessary to be considered. The request for World Heritage status was duly withdrawn by Japan.
Ten candidate areas were proposed with twenty-two component sites, spanning the cities of Kamakura, Yokohama, and Zushi:
SiteCommentsImage
Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gūShinto shrine and symbol of the city; includes Wakamiya Ōji and Wakamiya subordinate shrine
Jufuku-jiRinzai temple in Ōgigayatsu; number three of Kamakura's Five Mountains
Kenchō-jiGreatest of Kamakura's Rinzai temples; number one of Kamakura's Five Mountains
Zuisen-jiRinzai temple in Nikaidō famous for its magnificent garden
Kamakura DaibutsuKōtoku-in's iconic Buddha statue
Kakuon-ji13th century Shingon temple in Nikaidō; has a cluster of yagura
Ruins of Buppō-jiRuins of a Buddhist temple near Gokuraku-ji
Ruins of Yōfuku-jiRuins of a great Buddhist temple in Nikaidō
Ruins of the HokkedōThe area near Minamoto no Yoritomo's grave where the temple he was buried in used to stand
Ruins of the Hōjō Tokiwa ResidenceRuins in Tokiwa of one of the residences of the Hōjō Shikken
Kamegayatsuzaka PassOne of Kamakura's Seven Entrances
Kehaizaka PassOne of Kamakura's Seven Entrances
Daibutsu PassOne of Kamakura's Seven Entrances
Engaku-jiRinzai temple in Kita-Kamakura; number two of Kamakura's Five Mountains
Egara Tenjin ShrineOne of the oldest shrines in Kamakura; enshrines Sugawara no Michizane
Jōkōmyō-ji13th century Shingon temple in Ōgigayatsu
Asaina PassOne of Kamakura's Seven Entrances
Ruins of Tōshō-jiRuins of the Hōjō family temple, burned in 1333 on the day of the fall of Kamakura
Nagoshi PassOne of Kamakura's Seven Entrances; has a cluster of yagura
Shōmyō-jiShingon temple in an area of Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama that used to be part of Kamakura
Wakae IslandAn artificial island in Zaimokuza