Gorinto, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

Two armies ready for battle? Three hundred samurai killed each other here at Sugimotodera, the oldest temple in Kamakura. It's an interesting place for a battle with not much flat ground on the otherwise steep hillside. These gorinto are for the repose of the dead samurai.

I find it helps to put these things in the context of what was going on elsewhere in the world at the time. So here goes. The battle occurred fifteen years before Corpus was founded, while the legends say that the temple was founded around 100 years before Alfred the Great didn't found Univ.