- We booked two nights in Koya-san, staying at the Yochi-in Buddhist monastery. It takes four trains and a cable car to get from Kyoto to Koya-san, so we used a baggage service to transfer our big bags on to Kinosaki (next stop) and travelled light for a couple of days. It was a good decision.
- Koya-san is one of the World Heritage Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range. It’s a steep cable car ride up from the modern town to the monastery complex and it is like being transferred to another world.
- We really enjoyed the experience of staying in the monastery for a couple of nights, eating amazing vegetarian food, attending morning ceremonies of incense burning and chanting, and generally being quiet and contemplative.
- Koya-san is most famous for the Oku-No-In cemetery-temple which includes the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi (also known as Kukai), founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. The cemetery is about two kilometres long and has over 200,000 tombstones.
- We spent the morning with a local guide who walked us through Oku-No-In and the main temples of Danjo-Garan and Kongobu-ji. It was great to have access to her knowledge and understanding as we tried to make sense of all we were seeing.
- She explained various legends as to why Kukai chose Koya-san. In one he threw an implement from China and this is where it landed. In another he met a hunter with one white and one black dog on the mountain slopes. The hunter was son of the Shinto spirit of Mt. Koya and gave Kukai permission to build his Buddhist temple there, highlighting coexistence between the two religions in ancient Japan. She explained that Shingon Buddhists believe Kukai is not dead but rather in meditation, and the monks take him food every day. That once you cross the small Tamagawa River at Minyo-no-hashi, the area becomes a most scared place and photographs are not allowed. And much, much more.
- We headed back to the Danjo-Garan Temple complex which has an impressive pagoda (Dai-to), just in time for the bell ringing service.
- Next stop was Kongobu-ji Temple which is headquarters of the Shingon sect and has a lovely raked gravel and rock garden, the largest in Japan.
- After lunch we went back to Oku-No-In, wandering slowly, and thinking about all we’d been told.
- One thing that stood out was the painted, wooden memorial hall dedicated to Uesugi Kenshin, a famous warlord from the Sengoku Period. The hillside hall faces the stone memorials of his great rival Takeda Shingen and son Takeda Katsuoi. Locked in eternal combat. So many stories.
- Late in the day we headed up to Daimon Gate, the old western entrance of the monastery complex.
- Koya-san is a very special place and we felt privileged to visit.
![]( "05 monuments, trees and moss")
05 monuments, trees and moss
![]( "08 monuments, trees and moss")
08 monuments, trees and moss
![]( "09 stones placed on torii")
09 stones placed on torii
![]( "12 Mausoleum of Uesugi Kenshin")
12 Mausoleum of Uesugi Kenshin
