The Tabunoki of the Goryo Shrine at Sakanoshita

The Enoden train runs across this shrine's approach. Goryo Shrine at Sakanoshita sits behind Hase, and the level crossing at its torii is one of the most photographed spots in Kamakura, because the little green and cream train passes within a couple of metres of the shrine steps. Most people are there for the train. The tabunoki behind it is 20 metres tall, a Kamakura City Natural Monument and one of the six Kamakura trees on Kanagawa's list of a hundred notable trees. Tabunoki is an evergreen of the laurel family that grows along warm coasts, and this is close to the sea; its new leaves come out bronze in spring before turning, which on a tree this size is a fortnight of the whole crown looking rusty. The shrine is dedicated to Kamakura Gongoro Kagemasa, a warrior who by the tale of the Later Three Year War took an arrow in the eye at sixteen, had it pulled out by a comrade who braced a foot on his face, and objected to the foot rather than the arrow. His festival in September involves masks and is one of the odder things in the Kamakura calendar. No age is published for the tree.