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The National Geographic Magazine 



lamps past counting, but more acceptable 

 are the lamps of the poor, one that per- 

 petually burns being the little brass lamp 

 of a widow. The big globe of an in- 

 cense-burner at the doorway sends its 

 incense clouds through openings cut in 

 the shape of Sanskrit letters, and the 

 paths around this temple and the tomb 

 are traced on the lines of Sanskrit letters, 

 and while treading the holy words of 

 prayer one should also repeat them. 



The Octagonal Hall of Bones flanks 

 the tomb of the great saint, a deep pit or 

 ossuary, into which are cast the bits of 

 mortality from all over Japan, such ashes 

 and bones assuredly to be carried with 

 Kobo Daishi into the Pure Land. A 

 lichen-covered stone fence surrounds the 

 vault where the lord abbot sits in his 

 trance awaiting Maitreya, the future 

 Buddha, the Messiah, with whom he is 

 to have a final argument on matters of 

 doctrine before entering Nirvana. Sev- 

 enty-seven years after Kobo Daishi's 

 death, the Emperor sent new robes for 

 the sleeping saint, and after long prepa- 

 ration the abbot of Ivoyasan entered the 

 tomb and found the entranced one sitting 

 with long, matted hair and beard and tat- 

 tered clothing. The abbot shaved and 

 dressed the sleeping one reverently, but 

 the priests who were with him saw noth- 

 ing at all, as their superior made motions 

 in the air as if dressing and shaving 

 some one. Not until they had sunk them- 

 selves in deeper absorption, after more 

 intense prayer, were they able to feel the 

 lines of the cold body as the abbot guided 

 their fingers. Their eyes were then 

 dimmed with tears and with the celestial 

 radiance that flooded the vaulted tomb. 

 A great stone was laid over the entrance 

 and the place closed for all time, the 

 abbot fearing the result, if for some want 

 of merit his successors should not be able 

 to discern the saintly person. Emperors 

 and princes continued to send offerings 

 of clothing each year, and the abbot still 

 goes in state procession and lays them on 

 the altar table in the Hall of Lanterns on 

 the anniversary day. Then Kobo Daishi 

 miraculously assumes new garments as 

 he needs them, without mortal aid, and 



one may see the rolls of silk and imperial 

 otTerings, by the altar table in the little 

 temple, awaiting this last incarnation of 

 one of Sakya's disciples. 



SPLENDID MONUMEN'TS AND TABLETS 



The stone monuments of the early em- 

 perors stand on mounds of earth, the 

 simplest memorials there, while the Sho- 

 gun lyemitsu has the most splendid mon- 

 ument on the mountain. The poets and 

 painters of the great ages are all in evi- 

 dence, and the Lord of the Forty-seven 

 Ronins and the patriotic li-Kamon-no- 

 Kami, who opened his country by the 

 treaty with Commodore Perry and lost 

 his life in expiation of the deed, are also 

 there, and great Saigo, with his heroes of 

 the rebellion of 1877, are there too. All 

 the old feudal princes have their sotoba 

 tombstones of Bizen granite, accompanied 

 by stone lanterns that are lighted on 

 memorial and festival days. The daimios 

 of Suruga and Aki have the largest mon- 

 uments, but the memorials of the princes 

 of Sendai, Satsuma, and Kaga are also 

 noteworthy. The houses of Date of Sen- 

 dai and Nabeshima of Hizen have small 

 memorial temples in the village near the 

 entrance of the cemetery, with priests' 

 dwelling-houses attached, where the 

 members of those families stop when they 

 come for interments and anniversary cel- 

 ebrations, where the tablets are kept and 

 tended. The grave of the traitor Akechi 

 Mitsuhide, a great granite sotoba split by 

 lightning from the onion cap to the great 

 heavy plinth and held in place by wooden 

 braces, is a most eloquent witness of the 

 wrath of the gods and of Kobo Daishi 

 that he should venture there, and arrests 

 the Japanese visitors more than any other 

 monument. 



Danjiro, the great actor of the Meiji 

 time, has his granite tombstone, with his 

 well-known crest of three linked rings, 

 on the main avenue, and in this commer- 

 cial, material age, Kabitshiki (the joint 

 stock company, limited) has even 

 reached Koyasan. Clubs of merchant 

 folks and working people combine in 

 life to erect an elaborate monument, a 

 splendid bronze Jizo or Kwannon on a 



