Okunoin
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The main reason we came to Koyasan, besides staying at a shukubo, was to visit Okunoin. Okunoin (pronounced: Oku-no-in) is the largest graveyard in Japan, with over 200,000 tombstones, and is the holiest place in all of Koya. It is here that the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, rests. It is believed that he, instead of dying, is awaiting the return of the future Buddha: Maitreya.
All around the mausoleum lies the largest graveyard in Japan. We only had time to visit it during the early afternoon, but the option to walk the paths at night is available. It’s even encouraged to visit at night with the paths lined with lit lanterns and night tours being offered as well. Due to our short stay, we didn’t get to visit Okunoin at night, but we fully plan to on our return trip.
We started our walk through Okunoin by taking a taxi to the main entrance just down the street from our shukubo. Taylor was still recovering from his sprained ankle the week before, so we wanted to limit the strain on it from excessive amounts of walking. At the entrance, like with shrines, is a place to cleanse oneself before entering. As we walked down the lantern-lined path, it started with many more recent tombstones. Some of these tombstones are for companies and what we assumed was for employees who had passed away. There was even a tombstone in honor of a dog.
As we continued down the path, the tombstones started to get older and older. The trees as well started to get taller too. One of our favorite details that we noticed was the presence of moss growing atop the gravestones; this moss gradually became more present on the graves the further we walked into the cemetery. At the entrance the graves are relatively clean, but the older gravestones near the mausoleum and down the path towards the town centre were just covered in moss. It really helped to show just how historic and venerable Okunoin is.
Eventually we made it to the small set of buildings just outside the mausoleum where there were monks doing calligraphy. At the start of this area was a sign for no photography. As much as we wanted to take photos of everything, we respected the wishes of the monks and kept our camera down. After walking past the buildings we took the long path to the mausoleum itself. Here we walked around the building where Kobo Daishi, also known as Kukai, rests. We made offerings here and continued our way to the lantern hall. The lantern hall is a large building filled with seemingly hundreds of lit lanterns. Taylor was unsure if he could take photos here, so he didn’t, but a quick Google search will show many photos of the room.
We walked past the buildings near the mausoleum once more and took our camera back out again! From there, we continued to wander around Okunoin and diverted from the main path we took from the entrance. From here it is roughly a 2 km walk to the start of the path of the cemetery. Along the way we saw some very interesting landmarks.
Off to the side of the path towards town we came upon a small set of stairs leading to a stone torii gate. The sun just so happened to be at the right spot to light up the moss covering the top of the gate. We first saw this torii gate from down the path. Normally we would have likely just taken a picture and continued on, since there are so many graves there, but we had to stop at the spot once we saw the illuminated moss. The memorial is a five layered stupa and is the tallest stone memorial in Okunoin. This memorial is for Lady Sugen (using her posthumous Buddhist name), otherwise known as Lady Go or Oeyo. She was the daughter of the sister of Oda Nobunaga (a feudal lord and one of the three unifiers of Japan). There was apparently a Japanese TV show called Go about her.
We came across a small stone pillar called the Zenni Jochi Memorial. This memorial was for a Buddhist nun and dates back to 1375. The sandstone memorial has one sanskrit letter inscribed on it. Legend has it that if you place your ear on the stone, you can hear the cries in hell.
One of the most interesting landmarks we saw in Okunoin is the statue of Asekaki Jizo (Sweating Jizo) who takes on the suffering of others. Due to this, the statue appears to be sweating. This statue is intriguing enough as it is, but is not nearly as interesting as the well next to it. To the side of the shrine is the Sugatami-no-Ido or the reflection well. This small well has its own legend, that anyone who looks down into it and does not see their reflection will die within three years. We took the risk and looked down it. Fortunately, we both saw our reflections.
Besides the gorgeous graveyard, the best part of Okunoin was the towering cypress trees in the area. It was hard to get shots of the trees that would properly convey their size. We did manage to get a few pictures to appropriately show the scale and how they dwarfed everything around them.
On the remaining portion of the graveyard path we passed by countless more graves. There were even some war memorials, one of which has the imperial flag of Japan from 1870 to the end of WWII in 1945. At the end of - or start of, depending on the direction you are traveling - the path from Koyasan to Okunoin travelers are met by a statue of Kobo Daishi. Kobo Daishi is believed to be resting within the mausoleum and it is fitting that he greets travelers, pilgrims, and visitors to Okunoin.
This was Taylor’s favorite place to see during our entire trip. We took plenty of pictures, but they cannot do the place justice. One needs to see it in person.
Google Maps Link: Okunoin
