Mt. Kouya- Pre-Knowledge

送信者 Trip in Mt. Kouya

Kouya-san or Mt. Kouya, written in Japanese as 高野山, is one of the biggest temple complexes for Buddhist in Japan, located in Wakayama, Japan. It is around 2.5 hours away from the central Osaka by train, and its status as UNESCO's world-heritage holder has attracted many tourists from both Japan and foreign countries. Religiously, this temple complex is for Shin-gon shu（真言宗 or vajrayāna）, one of the Buddhist parties in Japan, who sets Buddha at the center of universe in its own dogma as "Dainichi Nyo-rai"(大日如来 or mahaavairocana）.Historically, it was founded by a high monk called Kuu Kai (空海）or Kou-bou Dai-shi（弘法大師） in 819 for a training space for himself or his students.

It is comprised of many small temples, but the core temple is called Kon Gou Bu Ji temple (金剛峯寺）, where legendarily the founder Kuu-Kai settled to spread his teaching to people who needed spiritual remedy, then currently it has been a center of Shingon-Shu Buddhism all over Japan, There is a place called Danjou-Garan (壇上伽藍）attached to the core temple, and it is said that Kuu-Kai had trained himself in this Garan. In Oku-no-in（奥の院）, there are many tombs of people or companies. At the back of the graveyard, there is a keep-out place, and it is the Kuu-Kai's tomb in which his mummified body is sitting as a guardian of the complex.

Like other mountainous places, the beauties colored by seasons are very vivid. It has heavy snow in winter, while flowers like cherry blossom bloom very much in spring. In fall, it has an extreme beauty with red autumn leaves. The complex has educational functions like Kouya-san high school and Kouya-san university in that area, so the complex is not only for teaching Buddhism per se to people visit there, but also to nurture future monks in those schools (in the school, some students will go to other university, but in the Kouya-san Univ., students are mainly training for being a monk. Their Buddhism has been inherited in this way for centuries.

Kouya-san is also famous for Sho-jin Ryori (精進料理）or the vegetarian diet served originally for monks, who can never eat meats on living forces such as beefs, pork, chickens and even fishes in their dogma; butchery is forbidden. Nowadays, visitors like us can eat those dishes in dormitories attached to this complex. Typically, the dish has a fixed set comprised of steamed rice, miso(beans paste) soup, pickled vegetables, main dishes made of Kouya Tofu (高野豆腐）, a special tofu in Kouya-san, and so forth. The Kouya Tofu is a local food which is very famous as a healthy food, and then many health-seekers including diet-seeking girls are willing to have those as a replacement of their meat meals.

Related to the Shin-Gon shu Buddhism, the dogma is much related to that of Tibetan; the teaching upon the universe through Buddha. Therefore, there are a lot of Buddhist universe-maps(曼荼羅　Mandala） in this temple, as you may see in Tibet or culturally Tibetan areas. However, one major difference is the way of decoration. Tibetan Buddhism or Lama Religion has colorful/vivid decorations in their temples; mainly in red and yellow, but some in blue green, purple and so forth. Meanwhile, Japanese temples have very plain decorations; in black and white or charcoal, sometimes in red and white.

I am not an expert in this, but from the point of view as Japanese, everything we Japanese have should be modest. With this regard, our modesty might have been incorporated into those deities when the temples were established, since, as far as I believe, religion are very close to lives of people anywhere in this world.

Mt. Kouya Officeial WebSite:http://www.shukubo.jp/

To be continued