Lisa’s Wanderings Around Japan/ Mount Koya: Aim for perfection at Kukai’s sacred temple

Koyasan in Wakayama Prefecture is not just a mountain. That is not to say it’s more than a mountain, rather it is a special, sacred place. It’s a vast area and community consisting of eight peaks and basins that from above resemble a lotus flower.

Koyasan is part of the Koya-Ryujin Quasi-National Park and where those who complete the Shikoku 88-Temple Pilgrimage go to give thanks.

The monk Kukai (774-835), not satisfied with the Buddhist teachings he received in Japan, went to China to study. He found what he was looking for, said, “Yes, this is it!” and asked for divine guidance on where he should go to spread the word. He threw a Buddhist ceremonial tool called “sanko” toward the East China Sea, or maybe it was the Yellow Sea. Whatever. Anyway, a rainbow-colored cloud swept it away and flew toward Japan. It landed, don’t ask me for details, on a pine tree at Koyasan. Kukai returned to Japan and founded the esoteric Shingon sect there.

I’m always amazed at how linguistically gifted people of another era must have been. How on earth were they able to disseminate and understand such abstract concepts in a foreign language? Perhaps such matters are comprehended in a way that is beyond us mortals.

Koyasan is gorgeous. It embodies the essence of what overseas tourists come to Japan to experience. The sacred, peaceful stillness you feel as you take a meditative walk through moss-covered trees and stones to the monastery complex where Kukai sits in eternal meditation is divine.

Kukai, posthumously given the name Kobo Daishi, was also a calligrapher of note. One day, he was asked to write an inscription for a palace gate. He wrote “Ohtenmon” on a plaque, and it was raised and attached to the gate. Admiring it from below, someone noticed it was missing an important dot above the character “Oh.” Kukai threw an inked brush at the plaque, bulls-eyeing a dot right where one should have been.

What an arm! From this episode, we get “Koubo mo fude no ayamari,” or “It happens to the best of us.” I mustn’t forget the other saying, “Koubo wa fude wo erabazu,” which translates as “A bad workman always blames his tools.”

Koyasan is one of those places in Japan where you just have to go. Stay overnight in a “shukubo” temple lodging and cleanse your soul with vegetarian Buddhist cuisine. Kukai will speak to you.

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This article by Lisa Vogt, a Washington-born and Tokyo-based photographer, originally appeared in the Jan. 23 issue of Asahi Weekly. It is part of the series "Lisa’s Wanderings Around Japan," which depicts various places across the country through the perspective of the author, a professor at Meiji University.