On Friday we headed to Kōya-san, several hours South of Osaka in the Kii mountain range, where we spent one night at a temple stay. Kōya-san is a temple town on Mount Kōya that was first settled in 819 by the monk Kukai who is known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi – one of Japan’s most significant religious figures. Located in an 800m high valley amid the eight peaks of the mountain (resembling a lotus plant) a monastery was established here by Kōbō-Daishi and has continued to be the centre of Shingon Buddhism. Established as a remote, secluded location away from the distractions of the world, today it is still remote and so quite a journey to reach, however it is a popular pilgrimage and tourist spot and so no longer as quiet and peaceful. In 2004 it was included as a World Heritage Site. Amongst the over 200 active temples in Kōya-san there are about 100 that provide Shukubo (temple lodgings) for guests to stay. We had booked a night at Daien-in, a temple founded in the Engi period (901-923) that is centrally located in Koyasan.
Travel to Koyasan was a train from Namba Nankai station in Osaka on the Nankai railway line with a cable car for the final few kilometres up the mountain. However, one section of the track was damaged in the recent typhoon, and so an alternate bus service was provided from Hashimoto station to Koyasan. We were looking forward to the cable train for the final section, but the bus gave us an equally impressive (and more winding) view of the mountains and valley. Though not quite as narrow and treacherous as the roads in Iya Valley, but our position sitting high and toward the back of the coach made it feel frighteningly close. The bus arrived at the train station, where humorously we were all escorted into the train station so we could then exit the station using our tickets and then transfer to a local bus into town.
We arrived at the Daien-in temple where we were checked in and shown to our room. A spacious two room Japanese style room, with tatami mats. Importantly we were shown the heating controls, as it got down to two degrees overnight.
After check-in we wandered through the streets of Koyasan, getting toasted sandwiches for lunch, which included ham much to our surprise, as the monks and temples are all vegetarian.
We then walked to the main temples. This included Danjo Garan, the first site established in Kōya-san, which includes the Kondo Hall – the main ceremonial hall – and the huge Konpon Daito Pagoda; and Kongobuji the headquarters for Shingon Buddhism, that includes the Banryutei Rock Garden, the largest rock garden in Japan, and displays many works of art on fusuma (vertical sliding doors) including ones that depict the life of Kobo-Daishi.
The temples were interesting, however it was the autumn colours that were the real attraction. It was the perfect time to visit with full autumn colours on display. So, it was a delight to walk the streets and temple grounds in the late afternoon sun, with the full colours and falling leaves. Also, after several weeks predominately being in cities, it was great to be in rural Japan and walking through forests.
On returning to the temple we used the shared baths which opened from 4:30pm to 9pm only, and then joined dinner at 5:30pm in the main eating area. The meal was a Japanese style vegetarian meal, which was quite nice just the difficulty of eating while sitting on the floor. They also had interestingly arranged the foreign guests all in line on one side of the room and the Japanese guests in line on the other side of the room.
After dinner we rugged up and walked to the nearby Ekoin temple to join the night time cemetery tour. A monk from Ekoin leads a walking tour in English through the Okunoin cemetery most nights, the largest and most famous cemetery in Japan. The cemetery is within a Japanese Cedar forest at the edge of Kōya-san. It contains over 200,000 thousand tombstones, including prominent monks and feudal lords, and is still actively used and growing. So, it combines 1,200 years of tombstones with trees up to 600 years old. The cemetery leads over several bridges to a number of temples and finally to the mausoleum of Kōbō-Daishi’s, where it is said that Kōbō-Daishi did not die, but entered a meditative state in which he remains today, alive. Only the head monk may enter the mausoleum, with food prepared on a daily basis day for Kōbō-Daishi.
The monk provided an interesting and informative tour, and a nice glimpse into their practices and beliefs. As well as providing some explanation on how Buddhism and Shinto co-exist in Japan society and are combined for the average Japanese. It was also a clear, cold night with the full moon, and so quite an experience walking through the cemetery. Lewis especially enjoyed the walk and used the walking time to quiz the monk on everything from which samurai are buried there to does he know anything about AFL? He kindly demonstrated the patience of a monk, even if he struggled a little with his limited English to understand many of the questions.
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