{"id":1009,"date":"2019-02-17T10:37:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T10:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2019-02-17T10:37:57","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T10:37:57","slug":"koya-san","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/2019\/02\/17\/koya-san\/","title":{"rendered":"Koya-san"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The later part of the path is lit by these stone lanterns. It is rather picturesque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[17,59,58],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imnotasaint.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}