You hear them before you see them – the monks and the pilgrims, walking through the Okunoin on a brisk Tuesday morning.
As the monks grow near, it is the sound of their wooden sandals (known as geta) going clickety-clack against the cobblestones that alerts you to their approach.
The pilgrims, however – dressed in their pilgrim’s white kimono jackets and conical straw hats – are betrayed by the bells hanging from their wooden walking poles, jingling lightly each time the poles strike the path.
Even normal visitors announce their presence when they ring ancient bronze bells, such as the one hung in front of a small shrine on the other side of the Nakanohashi Bridge – one of four stone bridges in the Okunoin.
Home to over 200,000 gravestones (making it the largest cemetery in Japan), the Okunoin has been called the most sacred place in Kōyasan, itself one of the most sacred cities in the country. It was settled in 819 by Kobo Daishi, founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, and it is his mausoleum to which all paths through the cemetery lead – the very paths that the monks and the pilgrims walk.
Their sounds precede them, and linger in the air long after they’ve left.
As for me? For once I’m not moving on a sacred path through Japan, having just completed my eight days on the 88-Temple Circuit around Shodoshima Island. In Kōyasan, I instead find a spot on the Nakanohashi Bridge and decide to let the path move around me as I sketch.
The pilgrims and tourists form a steady stream along the cedar-lined walkway, but it’s a passing group of some twenty or thirty monks that I’ll remember the most. They never actually stop walking, but when they see what I’m up to, they crane their necks, ooh and aah over my sketch, and wish me ganbatte a hundred times as they pass.
It’s a phrase I learned well on the Shodoshima pilgrimage – as my uncle in Yokosuka explained, it means, Be strong, keep going, don’t give up! I loved saying ganbatte to other pilgrims on Shodoshima, and the chance to do so here in Kōyasan – and to then hear it again in return, this time in regards to my sketching – feels almost as if I’m being showered in blessings by these kind-hearted monks, their black robes swishing in time to their steps.
We may have come to the Okunoin for different reasons, but I can’t help thinking we’ll each walk away feeling blessed today.
Great sketches! I am enjoying all of your posts from Japan:) See you in a couple of weeks:)))
Thanks so much, Dad! Can you believe I’ll see you guys in Kansas in just 15 days from now?? Unreal. I can’t wait 🙂 Thanks for keeping up with the sketches!
You are so good! Wish I had half your talent 🙂 What a peaceful day in Japan this was.
Thanks for your lovely comment, Maki! It was indeed a peaceful day – after so much walking on Shodoshima, I loved just being able to sit down and let the quiet atmosphere of Koyasan sink in. Have you had a chance to visit Japan before?
Nice to see those flip flops are still hanging in there! I can’t believe how much life you have managed to get out of them! And lucky them, getting to share in this amazing adventure with you. You have made me long to visit Japan now, with my own battered sandals in tow 🙂
Hannah, you will be so sad to know that my lovely flip-flops finally saw their end on the flight from Osaka to Bangkok…this time the strap that attaches to the back of the sandal (not the one between the toes) snapped off, and I knew it would just be beyond ridiculous to try and fix it a fourth time with glue. Thankfully, I found an incredibly cheap pair of knock-off Havianas in Laos and bought two pairs! They don’t compare though 😉
I can imagine it’s easy to feel blessed when you leave a location like Kōyasan. What a beautiful ending. I love these sketching updates!
Thanks so much, Erica! I love sharing the sketches here, so I’m really glad to hear you enjoy them. Have you been to Koyasan yourself? I hadn’t heard of it before a friend suggested visiting, and definitely wish I’d had more time there.
I partially detest you for always adding ‘to visit’ places to my own list; however you’re too lovely to incur any feelings of true ill-will. <3
Way to make me panic at first 🙂 But I’m so relieved to hear you can’t detest me for too long – that would be no good at all, BabuJ. Seriously, though – you MUST go to Japan. It won me over, heart and soul. xo