I was hell-bent on visiting Mount Koya not only to stay in a Buddhist Monastery but also to visit Okunoin Cemetery. I am a fan not only of bizarre hotels but also unique cemeteries and Okunoin, Mount Koya's most sacred site, is supposed to be home to a spectacular one. The remains of warlords, celebrities, shoguns, samurai, high priests, and artists are buried there.
OKUNOIN CEMETERY
Crossing the Ichinohashi Bridge at the entrance to Okunoin is like falling down Alice's rabbit hole: I'm transported to a weird, wonderful place. Beams of sunlight stream down on me through a forest of ancient, towering cedar trees as I walk down a path surrounded by lanterns, torii (Japanese gates), statues of deities, other-worldly towers of stacked stones, o-toga (wooden stakes covered in symbols) and tombstones. Okunoin Cemetery is both tranquil and haunting.
Okunoin Cemetery contains greater than 200,000 tombstones. The ones surrounding me on this path are composed mostly of weathered stone growing green with moss and blackening with time. A second path runs parallel to, and below mine, cutting through more contemporary headstones carved out of slick marble.
The Okunoin Cemetery gravestones and memorials are far more diverse than in any "Western" cemetery I've seen. Here's one of …. a spaceship? Some figures are happy in death, others look pretty pissed-off about it. There are markers branded by large corporations who have purchased plots for their most important employees (who they worked to death?) and another -- dedicated by a pesticide company -- pays tribute to all the termites it has exterminated.
The statues of Jizo fascinate me most. Wikipedia (abbreviated):
Jizo is one of the most loved of all Japanese divinities. Traditionally, he is seen as the guardian of children, and in particular, children who died before their parents. In Japanese mythology, it is said that the souls of children who die before their parents are unable to cross the mythical Sanzu River on their way to the afterlife because they have not had the chance to accumulate enough good deeds and because they have made the parents suffer.
Jizo statues are sometimes accompanied by a little pile of stones and pebbles, put there by people in the hope that it would shorten the time children have to suffer in the underworld. The statues can sometimes be seen wearing tiny children's clothing or bibs, or with toys, put there by grieving parents to help their lost ones and hoping that Jizo would specially protect them. Sometimes the offerings are put there by parents to thank Jizō for saving their children from a serious illness.
Reggae Jizo:
Even at two kilometers in length the path through Okunoin Cemetery ends too soon for me. But there's another treat at the end: I cross the Gobyonohashi Bridge to the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi (the founder of Shingon Buddhism) and Torodo Hall, which houses greater than 10,000 lanterns.
NIGHT
Back at Ekoin, long finished with my dinner, beer and communal shower my thoughts return to Okunoin Cemetery.
I wonder what it looks like at night?
Okunoin Cemetery looks dark at night. I can't see a damn thing. I stumble around, blindly aiming my camera at shadows and shooting randomly into the blackness.
It's an interesting game, looking into your camera screen to see what you've just shot. My photos are all crap.
The deeper I venture into Ukonoin Cemetery the darker and more sinister it becomes. I had assumed that I would not be the only tourist roaming around in here.
Alone, in a cemetery, at night, atop a mountain. This is a bad idea.
I scamper out.
It's a fine line between bravery and stupidity.
Read the entire Japan Trip series.