It is traditional in Japan to visit a shrine or temple to celebrate the New Year. The week of New Year I was stuck indoors with a bad cold but once I felt better, by the weekend, I went on a trip to Koya-san. It was a trip I’d been wanting to do for a while. Koya-san (or Mount Koya) is located just outside of Osaka Prefecture in Wakayama. It is the home of Shingon Buddhism. Japan is a mountainous country and building religious building on top of mountains is common. Obviously mountain gods are worshipped in Shinto but it also extends to Buddhism. I think this has something to do with the remoteness of the mountains and the ascetic lifestyle.

One of the attractions of visiting Koya-san is the journey on the mountain railway. Sadly, it was being refurbished so I had to make do with a bus ride up into the mountains. There is a little village at the top with many different temples. The day I visited it wasn’t too busy. I’m guessing it would have been very crowded a few days previously just after New Year.

My first stop was The Danjo Garan Complex. This is the headquarters of the fore-mentioned Shingon Buddhism. You enter through this rather impressive gate.

This is the main hall. You can take your shoes off and go in and have a look around. it’s impressive from the inside. None of these buildings are the originals though as being this high up means lightning strikes are common and, while this isn’t a problem these days, in the past this led to a lot of buildings burning down.

This pagoda is the Konpon Daito. This is the actual headquarters. It’s smaller than the other buildings but I guess size isn’t the main thing in Buddhism. It had been snowing and the ground was a bit slippery. Some of the buildings still had some snow on the roof. The area around the bottom of the roof would be cordoned off as every so often a block of snow would fall off.

The other main thing to do is walk along Okunoin. This is a footpath through a forest of Buddhist memorials. It leads to the Torodo Lantern Hall.

The later part of the path is lit by these stone lanterns. It is rather picturesque.

The Lantern Hall can’t be photographed but it was nice. It was quite a nice day out. I may have to visit again when the weather is nicer.