minobusan

One day a friend of mine from Texas came up to me and said in excitement "Junya! I went to this BEAUTIFUL temple on the way to Mt.Fuji! A friend took me and my parents there. It was definitely one of the most impressive temples I have ever seen! It even beats many of the temples I saw in Kyoto!" As I was pausing to think of which temple she was referring to, she took out post cards of the temple and flashed them to me. I recognized the pictures immediately and screamed "What?!?! You went to Minobusan? " The next words that came out of my mouth were "That's MY temple! You can't go there without my permission!" Of course, I was joking when I said this, but this is exactly how attached I am to the temple. I don't know what it is about this temple that makes it so special, but it's always been my most favorite temple. The grand wooden gate that survived from the fire in 1875, the huge ceder trees neatly lining the path between the inner gate and the main hall, the physically challenging 287 steps (part of the path connecting the inner gate and the main hall) that are so steep that it makes you dizzy when you turn around and see just how high you've come up, the relatively new but majestic main hall with the statue of Nchiren enshrined in it, the smaller temples scattered around the precinct as if to protect the main temple, the meticulously attended Japanese garden in the back of a temple building, all of which combined together, create a world of its own.

Ever since I decided to have "Favorite places", this temple has been at the top of the list, but I haven't had the chance to talk about it till now. It's a wonderful temple. If you ever get a chance to visit Yamanashi (Mt. Fuji, for example), extend your trip a little and visit Minobusan, I guarantee that it will be a wonderful experience.

Located in southern Yamanashi prefecture, Minobusan, the official name of which is Kuonji, is the head temple of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism. It was built in 1281 (most of the original buildings have been destroyed by fires and have since been rebuilt ) on the site of a small hermitage that Nichiren (the founder of the sect) occupied after he returned from exile in Sado in 1274. He spent eight years there, writing and teaching, never setting foot outside Minobu until 1282, when he left for Hitachi (what is now Ibaraki prefecture) to visit a hot spring for medical purposes but died before reaching it. His remains were brought here for burial, and ever since then the temple has been the center of Nichren followers' worship.