For over six hundred years, the Matsugaoka Tōkei-ji, in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, had served as a refugee for women seeking shelter from abusive husbands. At a time when women did not had the right to divorce their husbands, abused women often fled to the sanctuary of this Buddhist temple. After serving at the temple and convent for a specified number of years, the Tōkei-ji arranged for a divorce to be given them by their husbands. It was during this time that the popular nicknames for the temple came into use, which are Enkiri-dera (the “Temple of Severing the Relationship”), and Kakekomi-dera (the “Temple into which one runs for refugee”). It is also sometimes referred to as the “Divorce Temple”.
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Gate of Main Hall of Tokeiji Temple, Kamakura. Photo: Toshihiro Gamo/Flickr
Source: amusingplanet.com