Kamakura (snow dome)

Kamakura (かまくら or カマクラ) is a type of traditional snow dome or quinzhee in snowy regions of Japan. Kamakura may also refer to the various ceremonial winter celebrations involving those snow domes, or to the Shinto deity Kamakura Daimyojin (鎌倉大明神), who is revered during some of those celebrations.^[1] During some kamakura festivals, altars are set up inside domes of snow and Shinto rites are performed.

The ceremonies in some locales are reputedly adaptations of a traditional ceremony once held in the Kyoto Imperial Palace. It appears that the practice of worshipping Suijin, a Shinto god of water, during the winter came to northeastern Japan during the early Kamakura period when the Nikaidō clan became local landowners. This ceremony may have morphed into various winter fire festivals during which villagers pray for good harvests. In the Uonuma region of south-central Niigata Prefecture, the snow domes made for such ceremonies are known as honyara-dō.^[2]

One theory holds that the term kamakura arose from the resemblance of many snow domes to round ceramic kilns (窯, kama). A different theory suggests that kamakura is a corruption of kami-kura, (神蔵) which might be translated as a "storehouse of the gods." In either case, the connection with the city of Kamakura in present-day Kanagawa prefecture is tenuous. However, in places where the deity Kamakura Daimyojin is worshipped and Kamakura festivals date back to the days of the Kamakura shogunate, the ceremony might have been one way for the shogunate to ritually display its power.