“Whole View of Yenoshima” from Katase, c. 1910.

“Whole view of Yenoshima”, c. 1910. Before a causeway bridge was constructed, a visit to Enoshima could be made only at low tide.

“View of Enoshima” in the upper left, Hearn’s “beautiful high green mass”, with Mt. Fuji in the distance, c. 1930.

“And our path turns sharply to the right, and winds along cliff-summits overlooking a broad beach of dun-colored sand; and the sea wind blows deliciously with a sweet saline scent, urging the lungs to fill themselves to the very utmost; and far away before me, I perceive a beautiful high green mass, an island foliage-covered, rising out of the water about a quarter of a mile from the mainland.

“Enoshima, the holy island, sacred to the goddess of the sea, the goddess of beauty. I can already distinguish a tiny town, grey-sprinkling its steep slope. Evidently it can be reached to-day on foot, for the tide is out, and has left bare a long broad reach of sand, extending to it, from the opposite village which we are approaching, like a causeway.

“At Katase, the little settlement facing the island, we must leave our jinricksha and walk; the dunes between the village and the beach are too deep to pull the vehicle over. Scores of other jinricksha are waiting here in the little narrow street for pilgrims who have preceded me. But to-day, I am told, I am the only European who visits the shrine of Benten.”

– Complete Works of Lafcadio Hearn, edited by Delphi Classics, 2017

View from Enoshima at low tide, c. 1930, looking toward Fujisawa (Katase) after construction of the causeway bridge sometime in the 1920s.

Map: Kamakura and Enoshima (inset). (Source: Japan: The Official Guide, 1952.)