Jōmyō-ji Temple, Buddhist temple in Kamakura, Japan

Jōmyō-ji is a Rinzai Zen temple in Kamakura whose main hall has a wide, pale green hipped roof with a short ridge cap of vertical slats. Below the roof, a dark wooden frame with white plaster panels and sliding lattice doors opens onto a low porch with a wooden railing. A broad flight of gray stone steps leads up to the entrance, and the building stands at the foot of a wooded hill behind stone-paved paths and bamboo fences.

Ashikaga Yoshikane founded the temple in 1188 under the name Gokurakuji within the Shingon tradition. It later shifted to the Rinzai Zen school and became part of the Kamakura Gozan system as the fifth most important temple.

The temple's name comes from Jōmyōjiden, the posthumous name of Ashikaga Sadauji, father of shōgun Ashikaga Takauji. As one of the Ashikaga family's funeral temples, its premises carry the family crest, and the temple is the ninth stop on the Kamakura Thirty-Three Kannon pilgrimage. A wooden statue of Awashima Myōjin, kept here, draws prayers for women's illnesses.

The temple is on the Kanazawa-kaidō road; take a Keikyū bus from Kamakura Station toward Kanazawa-Hakkei or Tachiara and get off at the Jōmyōji stop, a few minutes' walk away. Admission is charged, and viewing the Buddhist statues requires a reservation. The main hall stands beyond the gate at the centre of the grounds, with the hill and its small Inari shrine behind.

The temple's name comes from Jōmyōjiden, the posthumous name of Ashikaga Sadauji, father of shogun Ashikaga Takauji, who sponsored the temple. The Ashikaga family crest appears throughout the grounds because Jōmyō-ji served as one of the clan's funeral temples. The hōkyōintō in the cemetery behind the main hall is said to be Sadauji's grave, though its inscription is dated 1392, about sixty years after his recorded death.