Koya-san is a sacred, secret and kind of sexual place

From now I want to write about Koya-san. Here is the north-west place of Koya-san, the entrance gate of Koya-san, and on a gentle hill with many trees. The gate made by two tall stones separates the land into two worlds. One is this world and the other is the sacred world, Koya-san. On outside nearby the gate, The Nyonin-do, the praying house for women, stands quietly, because the house hasn’t been used since the Meiji period. On the contrary till the Edo period the house had been full of many women who had come to pray or had come with worries whether their sons devoting themselves to Koya-san had been healthy or not. Because women had been forbidden to enter inside the gate (of course, now there is no such thing as the prohibition of women entering).


As in the picture above, a narrow path along a cliff from The Nyonin-do made a route semi-circled around Koya-san and the length of the route is approximately five kilo meters, it is The Nyonin-michi, the Women’s Pilgrimage Route. On the semi-circled path there were five praying houses including the Nyonin-do, it is said that the walking steps of countless praying women who had gone around the five houses made the narrow path. Nowadays women no longer take the pilgrimage of Nyonin-do, it supplies people a historical picnic route.



Dai-mon 


Inside of The Nyonin-michi is Koya-san. Koya-san has not only a lot of temples and statues of Buddhism, but also craftsmen shops sustaining works of worship of Buddhism and a university. The wooden vermillion official gate-construction of Koya-san, the Dai-mon, around down from the entrance gate I mentioned, is in the west side of Koya-san. In Japan there are many Japanese big wooden gate-constructions which were built in olden time, but the Dai-mon is the only one from which people can’t see the part of the cathedral. Koya-san is the big pilgrimage town Enshrining Kukai.


Kukai


The founder of Koya-san was Kukai, who was born in 774. Kukai, who thought that ordinary Buddhism let people take a lot of time in their lives in order to be enlighten, wasn’t satisfied with the Buddhism already transferred to Japan. Then he traveled to China for studying Buddhism more deeply, because he had the idea that there might be a deeper Buddhism in China. Finally he encountered the leader of Mikkyo, the secret thoughts of Buddhism, moreover the leader designated Kukai the next leader of Mikkyo, gave him the secret initiation and commanded him take back all of Mikkyo to Japan immediately and spread Mikkyo.

Mikkyo entails some secret events different from the ordinary Buddhism, saying not Chinese but the true words, the fire ceremony controlling the fire of people’s hope and some initiations.


Danjo-garan 


When you stand in the center of the town you will sense the unique atmosphere made by the sky, woods and temples enshrining Kukai. Especially the Danjo-garan is a unique construction with a big dome and two rooves. This was constructed in the image of a woman’s uterus.


Inside of the Danjo-garan is the world of Mikkyo. In the center is Daiichi-Nyorai, the cosmic Buddha, who is sitting surrounded by four other Nyorai. In addition, many Bosatsu, the angels of Buddhism, are painted on the pillars. The bodies of all of the Buddha and Bosatsu are plump.

You will feel the full-body’s affluence rather than the love and the mercy of Buddha, which are the most important affections of normal Buddhism. Here I want you to remember the mission of Kukai. The purpose of Mikkyo is the complete enlightenment in our lifetime. Metaphorically speaking, Mikkyo is like the flight of an airplane from Tokyo to Los Angels over the Pacific Ocean, on the contrary, normal Buddhism is a voyage from Tokyo via Hawaii to Los Angels over the Pacific Ocean.

If I attempt to explain the thoughts of Kukai, I sort of think that you can gain enlightenment and affluence of this world through the practice of the secret events of Mikkyo in a nutshell.

Mikkyo shows that there are two contrasting origins of energy. One is “Kongo”, the diamond, and the other is “Taizo”, the uterus. And the unity of Kongo and Taizo generates big energy. It is the secret of the cosmos, if people could recognize the secret of the cosmos they would get enlightenment and the affluence of this world.

Many people, even though they were women, have come to Koya-San for the sake of happiness. In olden time almost all temples putting the teaching of Buddhism in practice had prohibited women entering, but in that women made the pilgrims route in spite of the prohibition, Koya-san is a special place. 

At a syukubo - Koya-san( 2 )

The never ending practicing place, Oku-no-in -Koya-san ( 3 )

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