S P O T ／ SPOT-035

Kōyasan Okunoin (Mount Kōya Inner Sanctuary)

高野山奥の院こうやさん おくのいん

Kōbō Daishi — the monk Kūkai — founded Mount Kōya's Buddhist complex in 819 CE, entered a state of eternal meditative samādhi in 835 CE, and by the faith of the Shingon school, has not died since. He waits in his mausoleum at Okunoin, the innermost sanctuary of the mountain, sustained by monks who deliver food and change his robes twice daily. The two-kilometer path leading to the mausoleum passes through the largest cemetery in Japan, containing more than 200,000 grave markers, memorial stones, and cenotaphs donated by feudal lords, Edo-period merchants, modern corporations, and ordinary families across twelve centuries of devotion. Walking this path at night — which is entirely permitted and regularly done — delivers one of the most genuinely affecting experiences available on the Japanese archipelago: the path is lit by stone lanterns, the cedars are enormous, and the sense of being in the presence of something accumulative and vast and still operating is difficult to dismiss regardless of one's religious convictions. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.