Imagine if you will a city in the mountains, a temple city carved out of granite and stone overlooking the sea. Now imagine it is long forgotten, the buildings are swept away by the sands of time, leaving only the pathways, the carved monuments and the lost warren of passageways in their place. You are an explorer, following a long forgotten road and you stumble out onto a cliff upon the sea, and sitting there is a statue of the Buddha. He sits upon a lotus blossom, holding an austere, meditative expression as he has for hundreds of years since the last human being beheld him. This is what it is like to walk the trails of Mount Nokogiriyama in Chiba Prefecture.
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| The Many Statues |
Mount Nokogiriyama has a storied history. After doing some research I learned there were temples all over the mountain, but many were burned down in conflicts over the centuries. The Buddhist monks who carved many of the statues were persecuted here, and some of the statues had their heads lobbed off (incidentally some are still missing heads. You find them in the dozens in little alcoves as you wander down VERY steep and very wet walkways that dive down into gorges carved by the passage of time.
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| Missing a head |
Even decapitated as many are, one finds little vignettes here and there. At one point you will come upon two statues facing one another and poised as if a moment before they were alive and carrying on a conversation. Then you, the visitor, stumbles along, and they have to turn back to stone until you go away and they can carry on their gossip.
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A little conversation
As I walked along the pathways, the thought occurred to me that a place like this could never exist in the US. First of all, there's almost no wheelchair access to most of these hollows. Secondly, there's hardly any space where there are railings, and what few are there, the slippery stone makes it to the point where you wonder how no one sues someone. I say this with the jaded retrospect of a person used to people sueing everyone over the smallest thing in national parks or state parks or whatever. In a way its refreshing, a glimpse into something rough and beautiful, and it makes it all the more superb because you don't get quite as many people in some of the places.
Nature abounds here. One catches little spaces where mushrooms grow on logs, or a hint of birds in the trees or maybe a scattering of deer in the forest below.
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Something Wild
I used the lost city trope earlier, but it really suits Nokogiriyama. This was a temple complex, and as one wanders trhough the forest, you get a sense of these structures but then you lose it again. Its easy to imagine you are an explorer coming here for the first time. You come around a corner full of trees and then, there just off to the side, you see the most remarkable statue of Buddha just behind the branches of one tree. I caught the shot below in such a moment, and I wondered if this is what the explorers of Ankor Wat felt in a way. That moment of intrinsic excitement to see something new and beautiful you have never seen before.
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Emerging into the "Lost City"
The Great Buddha here is the main attrraction, though my father and mother both liked Kannon in the narrow gap more. He is the largest stone Buddha in Japan. By comparison, the great one in Nara felt like it was ten times this size (and it probably is though I don't have the exact numbers.) That one also had a different expression, more serene and gentle. This Buddha, as my mother put it, "looks like he is ready to smote with a thunderbolt." Its a very stern and austere expression, one you don't see in many Buddha. he holds in his hand a brazier or urn of some kind, and smaller Buddha are carved around the halo of his head.
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The Great Buddha of Nokogiriyama
The Buddha and his attendants, even the Kannon are all a part of this complex called Nihon-ji Temple. According to my research this was done in 1783 though the temple dates from the 700s. The Kannon statue shared in a previous post is newer still, carved in remembrance for the lost in World War II. Strange to see it and think how old it looks. One of the pieces of literature I read said it took 17 carvers 7 years but I cannot confirm that at the moment.
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Peaceful Respite
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Standing at the foot of the statue, the one thing I regretted was the weather. I've seen pictures of this place with blue skies and it is a very different feel. The gray leant to the solemn mood of the place.
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"He looks like he's ready to smote with a thunderbolt" -Mom
Just next to the Buddha is a mound of tiny broken Jizo statues around a main statue of the God of protecting children. I believe this is a "jizo" grave. People take broken statues and leave them here in reverence.
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Many Jizo
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A Deis
Wandering back along the trails, I found many more little vinyettes. A lone statue perched on a precipice of rock, watching over the path with a quiet, almost amused expression at the ex pence of slipping travelers below. In another spot another figure, almost like an emperor over a court of semi-broken statues beneath.
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Weary Traveler
Another statue rested over a pool, gazing down into the waters with a look of thoughtful contemplation.
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Private Pool
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This is about as tall as I am at 6'1"
One amusing acdode on the pathways and how precarious they were that day was this post above, showing a narrow tunnel carved into the rock. I had to duck WAY down to get under here. Not meant for tall foreigners I assume. But beyond it was a beautiful space with water trickling down into a pool above some stairs. This may be a place for penitent meditation.
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Waterfall
Not long after our exploration we wandered back to the tram and waited our turn to go down and find some lunch. While waiting I had a chance to try some sweet basted mochi which was sitting on a charcoal grill on the way there. The smell alone was enticing. The ride down was an exercise in my own tension, as I am dreadfully afraid of heights. I kept it together to film us getting down to the bottom.
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Delicious roasted Mochi
There isn't much in the way of food in the town at the bottom of the hill, but we did find a lovely little pizza joint run by a young group of friends who were probably about my age if not a little older. Mom sat in the front and beckoned people inside and they worked the pizza oven and the counter. It was a wonderful, friendly atmosphere, warm from the cold outside. They had pretty good English, and after hours walking and slipping, a hot pizza was JUST the remedy I needed for my hunger.
On the whole, Nokogiriyama is the perfect example of how a step beyond the known will open you up for remarkable adventure. There is a mystical quality to the mountain, an adventure aspect that you don't expect so close to Tokyo. You can literally be just a few hours from perhaps one of the greatest metropolitan areas in the world, and you find a natural, ancient place such as this. You meet people who are locals, you see the way people interact. In some ways it was like I was a local myself, just for a moment. I think that is what this journey was all about, and it was just getting started. Next time I will continue on my adventure, and close my thoughts on Tokyo.
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The Pizza Place in town
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Pizza Place Menu
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Delicious
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The Tram Ride
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