Cross the sanmon—the ancient cedar wood door framed by two paper lanterns – of the Sanbo-in monastery is like crossing the invisible and always desired border between worldly reality and the state of mind of perpetual peace. The garden that precedes the building is harmony made body. Maple trees with reddish leaves alternate with other conifers with ancient trunks, a babbling stream winds between granite stones (the same ones that make up the small bridge that crosses it), a layer of moss seems to give the scene a patina of eternity. All this against the backdrop of a dense forest sugisthe immense and straight Japanese cedars. A true statement of intent of what awaits within.
Sanbo-in is one of the 120 monasteries that stand on Koyasan, the sacred mountain of Buddhism Shingon Japanese. Koyasan is located 85 kilometers south of Osaka, on the Kii Peninsula, and has been sacred since the monk Kūkai settled in these forests to meditate in the year 819. His preaching gave rise to this school of Japanese esoteric and tantric Buddhism, whose rituals are very complex and focus on the use of mantras, mudras and meditation through the visualization of mandalas, to help the practitioner achieve enlightenment in this life. About 56 of these monasteries have it today shukubomonastic inns to welcome travelers and pilgrims who wish to spend one or more nights in meditation and the spirituality of Japanese Buddhism. An experience light years away from the chaos, tourist overcrowding and neon commercial advertisements that surround the visitor in the nearby large Japanese cities.
As soon as you arrive, you leave your shoes on the shelves set aside for this purpose and one of the monks takes you to a room for check-in. Then he takes you to your room. They are in authentic Japanese style, with a tatami floor, a low lacquered table and a couple of cushions for all the furniture, as well as a futon for sleeping and a heater, because up here, in autumn and winter, it is freezing cold. The bathrooms are shared.
The first appointment is at six in the afternoon, when dinner will be served, based on shojin ryōriBuddhist vegetarian cuisine, a little less frugal than that eaten by the monks, but prepared like them, with high quality products and with great care. You dine on the tatami floor and, if you want, you can order beer and also scope.
The surprise during my last stay was that the abbot of the monastery himself, the 82-year-old Master Hidaka Zenryu, appeared to welcome us. With his clothes appropriate to his position, his bald head and his venerable features, he knelt with us on the tatami and conveyed an environmental message based on the teachings of Kukai and Buddhism Shingonas simple as it is vigorous: all lives are equally important and worthy of conservation and respect, from the smallest insect to man; and all the evils that afflict us and will continue to afflict us due to climate change are a consequence of the ruthless destruction we are carrying out of those lives that nature has created. That’s where it is.
Then you can stay in one of the monastery rooms, for a moment of intimacy and contemplation, stroll in the garden or take a walk along the only street in Koyasan, which becomes even more magical when the night arrives because the tourist buses that arrive during the day from Osaka have already left. Walking in solitude among temples and pagodas, prayer lanterns and deciduous forests, which now take on impossible tones of red, ocher and yellow in autumn, is in itself a balm for every stressed soul. If you want you can come back before they close, at nine in the evening. onsen of the monastery, to give you that very Japanese pleasure of a bath in very, very hot water before going to bed.
At six in the morning the prayer begins, to which all guests are invited. The monks kneel before the altar in a room with soft lighting and colorful decorations, in which there is no room for another Buddha statue, nor a funerary stele, nor a candle, nor a lantern, nor a prayer book, nor another lacquered piece of furniture. For an hour, guttural litanies and mantras are chanted, with the rhythmic beating of a bowl and plates. It is a moment of great solemnity; You don’t understand anything, but you feel surrounded by the peace that the staging conveys. Outside it is dawning over the garden Zen of the atrium, and the shadows that covered the stones, the ancient trees and the moss give way to a new day.
At 7.15am breakfast is served, equally frugal and vegetarian: tofu, soup misoseaweed, tea and yogurt. So the most coveted item is a coffee machine they have at the reception, where for 300 yen (1.65 euros) you can get the dose of caffeine that the crazy world has driven you crazy. Then you prepare to collect your room to leave it free if you have only booked one day.
Besides monastic life, Koyasan has other attractions to complement the visit. One is Kongobuji, built in the Edo period and the main temple and headquarters of Buddhism’s leadership. Shingonwhich has more than 3,000 monasteries in Japan. Another is the large Konpon Daitō pagoda, which with its 49 meters of height and its striking orange color dominates the temple esplanade. But the most unforgivable visit and one that also prolongs the state of bliss in which one leaves after a day among the monks is the one to the Okunoin cemetery, the largest in the country. With more than 200,000 granite steles and funerary lanterns deposited for centuries among giant cedar trees, in a humid and mysterious environment, Koyasan Cemetery is a magical place. A two kilometer path leads between gravestones and centuries-old trees to the mausoleum of the great Buddhist master Kobo Daishi, also known as Kukaithe founder of the school Shingon. If you can, visit it at dusk or on a gray and foggy day, when the leaden light amplifies the melancholy and serenity that this strange cemetery emanates.
Practical information
- By car, Koyasan is an hour and a half south of Osaka.
- By train, go to Osaka Shin-Imamiay Station and take the private Nankai Koya Line to Gokurakubashi Station. The Limited Express Koya (Super Express) is the direct and fast train (takes about 80 minutes). There are other cheaper regional ones that take longer. At Gokurakubashi Station, take the Nankai Company Funicular, which takes five minutes to Koyasan Station. It is not possible to reach the city on foot from the upper station, you have to take shuttle buses from there to the city center, where the temples and accommodation are located.
- The Koyasan World Heritage ticket is a combination ticket that includes return train tickets from Osaka Namba to Gokurakubashi, return cable car tickets, and unlimited bus travel within the Koya area. It costs between 3,000 and 4,000 yen (18 to 25 euros).
- Seat reservation shukubo through the Koyasan Shukubos Association website. Some monasteries have their own booking website.
