Walk through Buddhist Cemetery to Okunoin

The path to Okunoin is through the cemetery which has over a half million tombs. The Japanese have been bringing their cremated relatives here for burial for over 1000 years! The grave markers are nestled among the cryptomeria groves, so ancient trees with ancient remains! In some cases, only a bit of bone or tooth is interred here, but the idea is to have a bit of genetic material onsite to be reincarnated with the coming of the Buddha of Future Times. In all Buddhist doctrine this period we are living in is referred to as the Dark Time and so one hopes to be around for the enlightened age ahead.

These figures are referred to as Jizos, a Buddhist deity who is said to guide the spirits of children to more auspicious rebirth. They are found all over the Japanese landscape for women wanting to get pregnant, those who have aborted or miscarried. The hats and aprons are offerings to keep the souls warm on their journey.

These more recent statues depict the monk, Kobo Daishi with golden embryos, representing both the rebirth in future times and his love and care for children. The Catholics who first came to Japan (Portuguese) connected the Kannon/Avalokiteshvara Boddhisattva represented in the figure on the left to the Madonna. Indeed here they even broadcast three times a day something that sounds like the Ave Maria, at 8am, Noon and 8pm. Nothing like hearing the heavenly choir while walking though a cemetery!

Many parts of the cemetery show the marks of great age, with moss and tumble down stones.

At some sights there are highly realistic figures and at others these very primitive representations of the buddha figure, barely carved out of the stone.

The trees are just as amazing as the tombs. This ancient cryptomeria has both new growth and even a maple tree growing from the rotted section of the trunk, easily 10 feet up from the ground, while the ancient tree continues to reach for the sky.

This figure of Kannon took my breath away when I first happened on it. Such a sweet face!

I always knew that Yoda was a Buddhist monk, but this figure proves it! Just add pointed ears and you have the George Lucas creation!

I was surprised to find that the Japanese also leave rocks at sights visited like the Jewish tradition of leaving stones at visited graves, but here I think the stones are honoring the spirit of the tree that was cut down. This probably comes from Shinto tradition, which believes in the spirits in natural phenomena, like the Native American traditions.

This modern gravesite really captured my imagination as I just know it is an artist's gravestone. Chalk is left at the sight for visitors to make their mark on the two standing tablets. It reminds me of a Basquiat painting.


At the end of the mile or so long path we came to the Okunoin, the spot where Kobo Daishi went into eternal meditation. Of course at such a sacred spot no pictures are allowed so you'll just have to live with my verbal account of what we saw there. Within the temple, beyond the welcome center seen in this picture, monks were burning the prayers and remembrances of visitors which were written on wooden tablets. The building and a newer annex houses urns and small remembrance figurines in row upon row of Kobo Daishi. Indeed over a million visitors arrive here to visit each year and if only a fraction of them have relatives or ancestors here to visit on pilgrimage, that's alot of burning of prayers!



Before going into the Okunoin, Joelle, Martina and I stopped at this row of Buddhist figures, especially the Kannon. Petitioners would splash the statues with water and then place coins in a box, burn incense and pray. After leaving this Necropolis, I took the bus to the other side of town to visit the main temples of the Shingon sect founded by Kobo Daishi.