A Visit to Mount Koya, Japan
Yesterday we visited the famous Mt. Koya, a world heritage site with more than a thousand years history of Buddhist meditation teachings.
We visited the Kongobuji Temple and the Okunoin Mausoleum. We travelled by Jumbo Taxi from Osaka, a two-hour trip. The entire tour took us all day, starting at 9:30am and returning to our Imperial Hotel at 5:00 pm.
There were five of us, Lin, Molly, Yin, me and our English-speaking tour guide, Hiroake Tanaka.
The Kongoburi Temple is the headquarters of the Koyasan Shingon-shu Buddhism, founded by Kobo Daishi, who in the year 804 AD, crossed the sea to travel to China in search of Buddhist teachings. In China during the Tang Dynasty, he received the teachings of a lineage of Buddhism unknown to Japan. He called this the Shingon Buddhism and in 816 he was granted the permission by the Imperial Court to build a monastery complex at Mt. Koya. He lived and taught at Mt. Koya until his death on 835 AD.
Mt Koya is now the focus of more than a hundred Buddhist Temples across interdenominational lines.
Notice the ceiling construction of the temple.
The temple’s surrounds.
An image of Kobo Daishi is shown below:
Other interesting facts of the Kongobuji Temple from the brochure are given below:
The Okunoin Mausoleum, some 3 km away. Starts with a 2.5m walkway lined on both sides by cedar trees, straight and tall, in a forest-like setting. Here the founder Kobo Daishi is believed to rest in eternal meditation as he waits for the arrival of the Buddha of the future.
Okunoin is one of the most sacred places in Japan and a popular pilgrimage spot for both the Japanese population as well as for many believers of Buddhism.
The Okunoin cemetery is the largest in Japan and houses more than 200,000 tombstones lining two kilometres long. Wishing to be close to Kobo Daishi in death to receive salvation, many prominent persons including monks, politicians, public figures, heads of big corporations and former feudal lords have had their tombstones erected here over the centuries.