Koya-san
October 10-11, 2004
Among the Monks
Friends from
Germany had asked me to be their tour guide on their first trip to Japan.
I told them that I’m no good as a tour guide, but went along just for the
fun. I did make one recommendation: To visit Koya-san, as one of the most
distinctly Japanese experiences. Koya-san is a town in a mountain valley
about 50km south of Osaka, and the center of the Buddhist Shingon school.
Over a 100 temples fill the valley, along with assorted tourist facilities
and a large cemetery.
We stayed
in the Shojoshin-in temple overnight, giving my friends the opportunity to
experience traditional architecture and gardens, tatami rooms with futons,
Buddhist vegetarian food, a Japanese-style bath, and Buddhist morning chants
all within 24 hours of arriving at modern Kansai airport. They took it all
quite well, except for the sesame tofu, a local delicacy that maybe takes
more than 24 hours to learn to appreciate.
The cemetery
surrounds the Okuno-in, the temple at which the founder of the Shingon school,
Kobo Daishi (né Kukai), has been in deep meditation for the last 1100 years.
Many companies have corporate graves here where they extend protection to
their employees even after their life-long employment has ended. Jizo, statues
of bodhisattvas that often commemorate dead children, miscarriages, or abortions,
abound. In the temple buildings hang hundreds of donated lanterns. The cemetery
is embedded in a forest of tall cypress trees, which provide a dark and mysterious
atmosphere even in mid-day.
At the other end of Koya-san are the sacred precinct with numerous pagodas
and halls, and Kongubu-ji, the headquarter of the Shingon school. At the
Kongubu-ji the visit to the buildings also leads us into a hall where we
receive tea and sweets, accompanied by a long-winded speech by an elderly
gentleman that we unfortunately (or fortunately?) can’t understand. The rock
garden behind the building is filled with an unusually large number of rocks.