Second stop, Koyasan (literally Mount Koya). After a long night in the bus and low amount of sleep, we arrived in Kobe, Kansai. Arrived early, I decided to go for it and go to Koyasan, sacred mountain, birthplace of Shingon Buddhism.
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Koyasan
UNESCO World heritage site since 2004, Mount Koya is located in Wakayama prefecture and is part of Mounts Kii’s sacred pilgrimage places. Koyasan’s city counts around 2500 inhabitants and 1 over 2 might be a monk.
Visiting Mount Koya is a « must » for a trip around Japan, at least for its cultural wealth, its 117 shrines and temples and its famous Okunoin cemetery leading to the temple where, accordind to the story, Kukai has been meditating since 835.
If you’re ever planning to go to Koyasan, I’d recommend you spend the night in a temple with the monks. You will experience their everyday life in the shrine and you’d be allowed to attend ceremonies/ prayers. It’s a very popular experience but it’s quite expensive…
It’s also a great destination for hiking! I haven’t tried any hike due to bad weather but there are several old pilgrimage trails leading to Koyasan:
- Koyasan Chishi Michi : trail departing from Kudoyama station (~23.5 km), could be reduced by leaving from a closer station that connects with the trail.
- Fudozaka : trail departing from Gokurakubashi (cablecar station to Koyasan) (2.5 km), the trail leads to Nyonindo hall women’s pilgrimage destination as they weren’t allowed to enter the place (’til 1872).
- Kohechi : part of the Kumano Kodo, hike and ancient pilgrimage trail through the sacred mountains. this route requires good equipment and a good week of walk according the website: Japan Guide.
In terms of gastronomy, Koyasan being a buddhist place, the local cuisine is vegetarian. However, restaurants serve common japanese meals such as Japanese curry or Niku udon (meat and Udon soup).
History
Mount Koya became the birthplace of Shingon Buddhism in 816.
There are different stories about the creation of the site but I’m gonna talk about the one explained in Koyasan’s digital museum.
According to the story, Kukai, founding father of Shingon, after his studies in China, prayed to be shown the perfect place to settle and teach about Shingon Buddhism. Then he threw a three spikes vajra towards Japan. When he got back to Japan, he wandered around in the mountains, looking for the perfect place for his monastery and ran into a hunter and his dogs. These dogs led him to Koyasan where he found his vajra in a pine tree. The said pine is now in the centre of the Dai-Garan (first building of the monastary) and is called « sankonomatsu », pine of the three spikes vajra.
In reality, thinking that the place looked like the center of a lotus where cosmic Buddha is seated, he got an authorization from the Emperor Saga to settle there to erect his monastery and teach Shingon.
What to do in Koyasan
If the weather allows it, I’d recommend to walk from the cablecar station to enter from the nyonindo which seems great to get a first taste of the mood of the mountain.
On my side, I started with a bus transfert from the top of the cablecar station to ichinohashiguchi, bridge marking the entrance of Okunoin cemetery and its long paved way to Okunoin temple. It’s possible to pay for the bus with an IC card but you can also buy a day pass and get coupons for numerous shops, restaurants, museums, etc.
After a long walk through the cemetery, we reach a bunch of temples and the bridge leading to Kukai’s sepulture, where he’s said to be in an eternal meditation state. Pictures are not allowed starting from the bridge which is why I don’t have any but it’s recommended to go at least to see the magnificent lantern room.
In the temples there’s a boutique where you can get omikuji, amulets and even a Goshuin for you collection!
After getting a new goshuin and wandering around a bit, I went back in the direction of another entrance of the cemetery. This side has quite interesting sepultures with companies’ logos, like Yakult, said to be for employees for some of them. One is apparently from an extermination company to all the termits they killed.
Due to the bad weather, there weren’t that many tourists, I wandered around the city a bit and found some nice and deserted shrines.
Then I went to the digital museum where they offered me a private projection as there were no visitors. The movie explained the creation of Koyasan, Kukai’s life and about the Mandalas. There also was a café in the museum, and with the coupons you can get a small bag of local coffee beans, it might not be much but it’s a great souvenir gift idea!
I didn’t visit as many sites as planned due to the rainy and cold weather, I prefered heading back to the hostel but I’m thinking about going back in spring, to fully enjoy this mystical place without rain or intense heat.
How to get there?
the mountain itself is accessible from the road, so if you take a private tour you can access by bus or you can rent a car. Else, the easiest way from Kobe and Osaka is to take the train! There is a pass, « Koyasan World Heritage Ticket« , covering the round trip for the different transportations (train & cablecar) that you can get in Namba, Shin-Imamiya stations or Kansai airport.
Route from Osaka, Namba/Shin-Imamiya :
- Nankai line direction Gokurakubashi, then cablecar
- Nankai-Koya line direction Hashimoto then train direction Gokurakubashi (the station’s staff will guide you to the train leaving from the other side of the plateform. Easily recognizable (see picture)), then cablecar.
It costs around 2800yen for one way so be sure to have about 5600yen for the round trip if you don’t take the pass.
To sumup, Koyasan is a magnificent place worth visiting, the Okunoin cemetery was mystical! It’s a place to visit, try to book a few days in Kobe or Osaka, in case the weather would be bad to be able to go on a nice day !
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