Our temple stay at Kōya-san included breakfast, so we joined the line of foreigners in the dining area. We ate what we liked out of the set vegetarian breakfast, which wasn’t very much for some of us, and it looked surprisingly similar to dinner last night. The sitting on the floor to eat also doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. On leaving the dining room we noticed a Sand Mandala on display. Which is incredibly detailed and must have taken an enormous amount of time. We still had a few hours before checkout, so we went back and relaxed in the room.
We left our bags at the temple when we checked out to have a walk through the Okunoin cemetery, to see how it compares in the daylight. The forest was more noticeable during the day, with some autumn colour mixed in with the Japanese cedar trees. We spend some more time in the newer area of the cemetery where many companies have a tombstone. The monk explained the previous night that it is a common practice for leading companies to have a monument in the cemetery, to acknowledge the workers and families of the company – as well as a status symbol for the company itself.
Other interesting items we learnt from the monk on the tour included:
- Shinto has ceremonies predominately celebrating life and newness, whereas Buddhism largely has ceremonies around death. And so most Japanese practice Shinto practices for birth and ceremonies related to children, and then Buddhist ceremonies around death. He also joked that Japanese are now also are becoming Christian so they can have a white wedding – which is the current fad for weddings.
- People are not buried at the cemetery. Buddhism traditionally uses cremation, and so the ashes may be buried or scattered at the cemetery. Japanese law today is that all deceased must be cremated.
- Anyone of any religion can have a tombstone in the cemetery. It was not clear but our understanding is the various temples control the cemetery, and so a donation to a temple is what is required.
- Jizō Buddha is one of the most popular Buddhas in Japan, and is the Buddha that often has the red material placed on him. Jizō receives prayers around children, birth and fertility, and so the red material is often shaped like a baby’s bib. And the Buddha image/statue is often friendly in appearance, even cute or cuddly looking.
- Flowers aren’t placed in the cemetery. People can place cedar leave/needles. Also people will place coins or other small mementos.
- Shingon Buddhism is considered esoteric Shingon, with esoteric meaning hidden, or secret, and Shingon meaning mantra. And so they believe the dharma (eternal teaching/meaning) is hidden in the world through nature and all natural things, and can be discovered by anyone, and the main teaching method and practices revolve around mantras.
With only having a small breakfast we searched for a restaurant for an early lunch but found most haven’t opened yet. So we grabbed some drinks at a vending machine and decided to leave Kōya-san, heading back to Osaka and then onto a Shinkansen to Okayama.
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