AUTUMNAL FROLIC
Sampling the colours, ancient temples of Koyasan, Japan
At the entrance gate of Sekisho-in, an old temple at Koyasan, or Japan’s Mount Koya, two monks were sweeping dry leaves from a pathway. We dragged our luggage, walking past them with a slight feeling of awkwardness.
It was weird to say “Check-in, please” to a monk inside a temple hall as if we were in a hotel. The monk quickly ran his finger through the guest list and nodded his head. Like many visitors who choose to stay the night in temple lodgings, we were about to experience a glimpse of Buddhist monks’ lives in Koyasan, one of the premier Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Japan.
Koyasan is in Wakayama prefecture, south of Osaka. It was named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2004, as one of three sacred sites and pilgrimage routes of the Kii Mountain Range.
Located 820m above sea level, Mount Koya has been a sacred site since 816 AD. It was because Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, established his monastery at the mountain. In the 1,200-plus years since, Koyasan has become an important place for Shingon practitioners.
Today, Mount Koya is home to 117 temples, of which 52 have rooms to welcome pilgrims, and for tourists to stay overnight at temple lodgings, called shukubo.
“These are your gifts,” said another monk while handing us two colourful sai
sin (holy threads) to wear on our wrists. He showed us the temple’s rules and public facilities, including a dining room, prayer hall, public toilets and a coffee machine. He then led us past an inner garden to our room, on the second floor. Surprisingly, the room was quite big. We had booked a room with private bathroom. We had our own bathtub with hot shower, a toilet room, a living corner with TV, fast Wi-Fi connection and gas heater.
“Dinner is served at 5 o’clock,” he said before giving us our room key and leaving.
As quick as we could, we unloaded our stuff, grabbed our cameras, locked the sliding door to our room and walked straight to Okunoin, a popular pilgrimage site and the top attraction of Koyasan.
Set in a lush green cedar forest, Okunoin is the site of the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi. His followers still believe the revered master has not yet died, but has rested in eternal meditation since 835 AD, when he was 61. In Okunoin cemetery, more than 200,000 gravestones of Kobo Daishi’s followers were erected along the 2km-long walkway to the mausoleum. All of his followers wanted to be close to him even after death.
Another beauty of the site can be found in Torodo Hall or Hall of Lamps. It was built in front of Kobo Daishi’s mausoleum for worshippers to offer lanterns. It is believed
that the hall houses more than 10,000 eternally lit lanterns.
We left Okunoin at almost 5pm in the evening and returned to our temple in time for dinner. Monks were busy setting rows of small dining tables and serving food on wooden lacquerware trays. Each tray had a clutter of small bowls of vegetarian temple cuisine, called shojin ryori.
I sat cross-legged on a tatami mat. In front of me was a bowl of rice served with a selection of tempura, radish pickles, sweet-and-salty boiled peanuts, seaweed soup, boiled vegetables and goma dofu, which was my favourite. The look of goma dofu was like tofu, but it was not made of soybean. Instead, it was made of ground sesame and kudzu powder. It was served in soy sauce. The smell was good and the texture was custard-like. It also melt in the mouth.
After the meal, some guests returned to their rooms while others went out for a night tour of Okunoin. We decided to try on the temple’s pyjamas, in a bright saffron for both shirt and pants, called samue, or the working uniform of monks. The top is a kimono-like cotton shirt with elastic cuffs, while the pants are loose-fitting with elas- tic ankles. We also put on the blue kimono jacket and a pair of white socks to keep ourselves warm. The night was very quiet and cold. For a while, I fell into deep sleep.
When morning arrived, I thought all guests would have been woken up by the ringing sound of a temple bell, the sign for morning prayer session. But I was wrong. I didn’t even hear any sound, nor the prayer. When we went down to the prayer room, three monks were chanting. Dozens of visitors had already joined the session. Some guests chanted along with the prayer while looking at a printout in their hands. Occasionally, the chanting was accompanied by the bang of a gong. The prayer ended around 7am, when it was time for breakfast.
All guests seemed to check out after the meal. We left our luggage in a designated area at a corner of the dining room and were ready for more exploration.
We got on a public bus for an overview of the town, and later stopped at Danjo Garan Complex. It is the location of the first temple built by Kobo Daishi for spreading his teaching. Many important Buddha images of Shingon Buddhism have been kept within the temple complex. On the grounds stand about 20 small and large halls, including Koya Myojin Shrine, two big pagodas and a large bell.
The most outstanding structure is Konpon Daito, or the great fundamental pagoda. It is the two-storied stupa standing 48m tall, the tallest building in Koyasan. It was Kobo Daishi who wanted to have not one but two grand stupas built — one at the eastern end of the temple’s principal hall; the other, at the western. However, he didn’t see the pagoda because it was completed 52 years after he’d entered eternal meditation.
The pagoda has been rebuilt several times. The material was changed from wood to concrete in 1934 to make it more durable. It was painted in white and orange, with a large Buddha statue added inside.
On the west side stood another pagoda, with a look identical to that of Konpon Daito. Called Saito, or the western pagoda, the building was founded by Kobo Daishi’s successor in 887 AD. Like the pagoda in the East, the western pagoda also passed several renovations, and the present one was rebuilt in 1834. The Saito pagoda looks more classic because it’s still made of wood.
Between the two pagodas stands the Kondo Hall, or the main wooden pavilion still used for dhamma teaching and ceremonies.
Opposite the Danjo Garan Complex is Reihokan Museum. It has three exhibition halls to display religious treasures of Koyasan including ancient deities, paintings and Buddha images.
Our two-day trip in Koyasan passed by quite fast. Although it was short, it was one of the most memorable trips during our stay in Japan. When we returned to Sekisho-in to get our bags in the late afternoon, we saw new groups of visitors coming. “Check-in, please,” was the last sentence we heard when we dragged our luggage through the temple gate and headed back to Osaka with delight.