Welcome back to my travel blog! I am glad to end the hiatus that’s stretched for about two months. I had a veeeeery rough stretch of time starting from the end of July, and I am slowly getting back on my feet and picking things back up.
Without further ado, let’s get started! This post details my excursion to Koyasan on June 23-24, 2023.
Koyasan, or, in English, Mt. Koya, is a mountain accessible by about three hours of train rides from Osaka. Osaka was way too far for me to access cheaply and quickly by anything other than an airplane ride, so this trip was the first time I took a domestic flight in Japan. The budget airfares within Japan are very cheap. The scenery is definitely different from the Kanto area of Japan near Tokyo.
A glimpse inside of the terminal of Narita Airport for domestic flights.My airplane!A rice paddy! The rice is growing bigger.What an interesting agricultural technique! Wonder what they’re growing here…There’s hardly any infrastructure in this mountainous area.A modern-day village.I wonder where this bridge leads? The only thing nearby was the train tracks…I’m not sure, but I think these are earthquake reinforcements.A Buddha spotted from the train window!The cable car tracks used to get up the mountain to Koyasan.
Koyasan is the center of Shingon Buddhism, also called Esoteric Buddhism in English. This form of Buddhism has a tenet that there are hidden lessons and meanings in nature, and one can gain wisdom and, eventually, enlightenment by meditating on these mysteries. Shingon Buddhism is very ritualistic, compared to some other Buddhist sects.
Koyasan started as a small temple village in 826 A.D. with a single temple and now hosts 117 temples. This number may be impressive, but it is nothing compared to the 2,000+ temples at Koyasan in the Edo period. However, most of these temples burned down during a massive lightning-sparked fire in 1843, and many smaller temples combined into singular temples when rebuilding.
Today, aside from temples, the town also has a small shopping and dining area for tourists as well as a university for aspiring monks.
The stairs to Kiyotaka Inari Shrine. This is a mere preview to Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto.A glimpse of the main street of Koyasan.Even in the middle of summer, many Japanese maples retain their beautiful red autumn colors.Several small streams like this one run through Koyasan.Another look at the town of Koyasan.This pharmacy was very prominent on the street.This is Shojoshin-in.And more of Shojoshin-in.This is Sekisho-in.Street food stalls were set up! Not sure if there was a special occasion, but the food was good.
There are a number of amazing cultural experiences in Koyasan. One of the most treasured is staying at a shukubo, or temple lodging. You stay in lodgings at a temple and experience a little of what it’s like to be a monk.
I stayed at a shukubo called Ekoin. This 1200 year old temple was an incredible place to stay and offered many spiritual activities. (The buildings are not 1200 years old. Basically all of Koyasan burned down during that massive fire in 1843.)
The main gate.The central courtyard.The pond in the central courtyard.This was my room. You may notice a lack of bed – a futon was brought in and prepared after dinner, and the table was pushed under the window. A very traditional style of room.Traditional the room may be, but it still has blatant modern amenities, too.The view from outside my window.More scenery.The tea room sliding doors had gorgeous paintings on them.Natural and manmade art was everywhere in the shukubo.An interior courtyard.The small gardens between buildings were lovely, too.A closer view of the architecture. The scenery was gorgeous.The outside hallway leading to the meditation hall.The meditation hall, where Ekoin guests can learn about Ajikan meditation. This is a Buddhist meditation meant for expelling bad energies and feeling closer to Buddha. It is part of monk training and should not be initially attempted without the guidance of an experienced monk.Dinner. I splurged on my reservation and got the maximum three-tray dinner. This is a meal of shojin ryori, a very healthy vegetarian cuisine eaten by Japanese Buddhist monks. Most of these dishes were delicious!
Shojin ryori is the traditional cuisine of Japanese Buddhist monks. It is a vegetarian cuisine, following the strict Buddhist rules prohibiting the consumption of meat. Despite limited ingredients and nonuse of meat, shojin ryori has many delicious and nutritious foods. In addition, these dishes are made to have a sense of the seasons and match the five Japanese Buddhist elements (earth, water, fire, wind, void), five tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami), five colors (green, yellow, red, black, white), and five cooking methods (raw, stewed, boiled, roasted, and steamed). This is a cuisine that has seen a lot of thought and care put into its creation.
After checking in, attending meditation, and eating dinner, I went on a guided night tour of Okunoin. My tour guide was a monk from Ekoin. He was very knowledgable about Okunoin, and had a lot of information to share and stories to tell.
Okunoin is Japan’s largest cemetery and one of its most sacred places. It stretches over two kilometers and contains over 200,000 gravestones and memorials. It is still an active cemetery, and new graves are added each year. At the far end of Okunoin is the memorial site of Kobo Daishi. Kobo Daishi is the founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan. The monks of Koyasan say that Kobo Daishi is not dead beyond the gates of his memorial, but still alive in eternal meditation. Legend has it that Kobo Daishi chose this place to enter eternal meditation in 835 A.D. and closed the gates. These gates have only been opened once before: 80 years after Kobo Daishi closed the gates. It is said that the monk who went inside found Kobo Daishi still alive within his eternal meditation, and that his hair and fingernails had grown. The monk trimmed his hair and fingernails and closed the gates once more. The gates have not been open since then.
I have no pictures of the Kobo Daishi memorial. Past a certain point in Okunoin, use of phones and cameras is forbidden. This resulted in a slightly funny anecdote regarding Pokémon Go: there were many Pokémon and a gym in the sacred area, resulting in many people being on their phones where they shouldn’t have been. All the Pokémon and other features in this area were removed from the game after the monks complained.
I visited Okunoin twice, once for this night tour and then once during the day. These are only the pictures from the night tour, and most of my Okunoin pictures are in the day section later in this post.
Gareth came along with me for the tour! I asked the monk, and he said it was okay for Gareth to join the tour.Lanterns line the entire path to the sacred area. Some lanterns were noticeably newer or older than others.This is an altar to offer prayers to Buddha, using candles in the front or monetary offerings to the saisen box (the box with slats behind the candles).Buddhas were a common sight at Okunoin.This style of tombstone is very popular and common in Okunoin. See the five-part monument beyond the gate? That’s called a gorinto. From the bottom, the different shapes represent earth, water, fire, air, and space. Together, these five elements make the universe. At the top, above the monument, there is thought to be an invisible sixth element: consciousness. So, when used as a gravestone, the gorinto represents returning to the universe after death. This structure is unique to Japanese Buddhism.Burial traditions change by region. In the Kansai region, after cremation, ashes and most of the bones are put in one big box to stay in a cemetery near home, while a small box with the throat bone (which looks like Buddha meditating) is brought to Koyasan. In the Kanto region, all remains are put in only one box.I thought this sunset was very stunning.The ambience at night, with all the lanterns lit, is very different than during the day.Near the sacred area, there is a kitchen to cook breakfast and lunch for Kobo Daishi every day. I’m not sure I have a picture of the kitchen, though…
In the morning, I attended two Buddhist religious services at Ekoin. The first was a morning sermon led by two priests. One priest recited a sutra while the other played the black singing bowl on the left. While this was happening, each person approached the altar up front to take a pinch of incense and add it to the smoldering urn. This practice, called shoko, is both an offering to one’s ancestor and a self-purification ritual.
Afterwards, I attended a Gomakito, or a Goma fire ritual. This was a very powerful experience. It is a ritual that is unique to Vajrayana and Esoteric Buddhism. A priest builds a consecrated fire and, if it is a large ceremony, one or more other priests will beat on taiko drums and chant a mantra. This ceremony is performed to destroy negative energies, cleanse detrimental thoughts and desires, and make secular requests and blessings through the burning of prayers written on wooden sticks called soegomagi. It has a very powerful cleansing effect, both spiritually and psychologically.
After the fire ritual, I returned to my room to eat a breakfast of shojin ryori. Then, I spent my remaining time at Ekoin hand-copying a sutra using a brush pen. This is a meditative experience, where the practitioner is to hold a wish in mind while copying the sutra. I will admit, it was a bit difficult to both concentrate on writing and focus on my wish!
The hall where the morning service was held. You can see the incense urn in front.All of these markers have the names of people that the temple prays for.This is a good view of the singing bowl.The altar where the fire rituals take place.The taiko drum.The monk began by creating and consecrating the fire. The burning of the soegomagi was later.The fire grows.The building was well-ventilated.At its peak, the fire was quite large.The building was constructed of wood, and yet I felt no concern that it would catch on fire. The fire was well-controlled.Eventually, the monk stops feeding the fire with wood and soegomagi. The fire naturally burns down and the ritual ends.What is left from the ritual.The ritual took place in an inner room. This outer room is a storage place for shoes.The whole of the fire ritual hall. It is quite small! And wisely standing on its own, unconnected to any other building or hall.Breakfast!The sutra paper, so far untouched.Completed! I had to go to the reception in the middle to switch out the brush pen, since the first one stopped working…Another view of the main courtyard. Straight ahead is the reception area.Ekoin did have two levels to the temple. The scenery of the temple was so beautiful.
This is a bonus video of a handful of seconds of the fire ritual I attended. There are longer videos available online if you want to see more. You can see I’m not the only one with a camera out!
I visited Okunoin a second time during the day. I took many more pictures, but there were many more people on the paths (unsurprisingly). Please enjoy the following gallery of pictures from Okunoin. There’s more trivia from my tour guide with the pictures, too.
These statues are common across Japan. They are jizo statues, named for the Buddha Jizo Bosatsu. These statues are associated with protection of babies and children, and they are dressed in red bibs and hats as a virtuous gesture. The red color symbolizes protection from illness and danger. And my tour guide told me that the youthful bibs and hats are chosen because this Buddha has kind of a baby face! Fitting for a guardian of children.This is the first bridge to cross into Okunoin. You bow before crossing to honor the spirits resting here.Each of these cedar trees is logged with the Japanese government for protection. Some of the cedars are hundreds of years old. Their size was incredible. Some of the biggest are survivors of the massive fire in the 1840s. We just don’t have many forests like this left, nowadays…In the old days, monks would cleanse themselves in this river before visiting the sacred space of Kobo Daishi. Cold! Nowadays, everyone ritually cleanses Buddha statues before crossing the river instead.This bridge leads to the sacred area. Taking a picture here is okay. The structure you can see in the distance is not Kobo Daishi’s gates, but instead a temple called the Hall of Lanterns. Thousands of lanterns are eternally lit with names of deceased. Behind this temple is Kobo Daishi’s mausoleum.These Buddha statues stand next to the bridge leading to the sacred area. You are supposed to cleanse one with water before crossing the bridge.Some more Buddhas for cleansing. You can also light prayer candles here.I thought this fountain was lovely.This is a memorial for all those who died during Japan’s invasion of Korea in the late 16th century.This gravestone is right on the main path. It was very jarring to suddenly see the name of a company, in English, on a gravestone.I am not sure of the significance of hiding Jizo statues in crevices like this. But I have seen many Jizo statues in hideaways like this one.It is said that if you can’t see your reflection in this well at Okunoin, or if you stumble on any of the stairs, you will die within three years. Fortunately, I saw my reflection just fine. Pine trees are offered at the graves instead of flowers. Flowers don’t last because it is cold in Koyasan, but pine trees in water can last many months.I had to time this picture very carefully.These black statues are called the sweating Buddhas. They are often covered in condensation, and it is said that these statues take your suffering when you pray to them. You sweat when you are in pain, so these statues sweat in your place.
Kongobu-ji is the head temple of Shingon Buddhism. It was originally constructed in 1593 but did not become the head temple until later. Only some parts of the temple are open to visitors, and fewer parts are allowed to be photographed. But, I still have a lot to share with you!
Pine boughs lined the stone paths in the outer courtyard. But, I am not sure what the significance of this is. I can only guess that there is a connection with pine trees being offered in the cemetery.A bonsai!This is a vajra.Kongobu-ji has two lovely rock gardens.Unfortunately, I was pressed for time, and I could not stay and peacefully admire them.
My final stop was Reihokan Museum. This museum houses many important Buddhist artifacts. It is owned and maintained by Kongobu-ji and other temples of Koyasan. Taking pictures in the museum was expressly forbidden. However, taking pictures in the gift shop was not forbidding, so I took pictures of postcards featuring most of the statues on display in the museum. Don’t let the postcard size fool you – all of these statues were huge, at least double the size of a normal man. Very impressive.
Of course, I came home with some souvenirs. Not very many, as the trip was short. I acquired some stickers, a bell charm, some chopsticks (complimentary from Ekoin), snacks with temples printed on them, a fox mask, and a plush of Teto from the Studio Ghibli film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. (This last item obviously isn’t very religious, but there was a Ghibli souvenir shop in Koyasan, to my surprise, and I just couldn’t leave it behind.)
All of this is so interesting, Melissa. Great pictures. I love thé rock gardens! Just looking at the pictures relaxes me. Beautiful scenery, too, of course. I’m so glad you got to see and experience this!
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