From October 4^th to 6^th, Professor Kanayama guided us around the sacred sites of Kumano.

On the early morning of October 5th, due to the previous day’s rain, the Nachi falls was violently spraying us as we made our way up the mountain. Further up the mountain than last time, we felt closer to the gods and worshiped in earnest. We felt the incredible spiritual power of the waterfall.

We continued up Mount Nachi and visited Amidaji Temple, a temple that is rarely visited by tourists.

Kumano was said to be a place of resurrection, and for the people praying for rebirth, the journey au to Amidaji Temple on this mountain was steep and difficult, and it seems that many people died of starvation along the way.

We heard that it was common for hungry ghosts to appear or for people to be possessed by the spirits of the dead. There is also a “hitotsu Kane”(a bell rung by the dead) where when someone dies, they ring the bell of this temple before they depart for the afterlife.

Immediately after lunch, we visited the Fudarakusan Temple, where a model of the Fudaraku boat is preserved, and received a lecture from Professor Kanayama.

The actual Fudaraku boats that existed between the 8^th and 9^th centuries had their starting point from this temple.

They were seen off to Nachihama by a large crowd of people , who after pulling the boat on a rope to Tsunakiri, cut the rope, sending the monk in the boat off for the South seas, aiming for the Kanon Pure Land.

 This was a form of self-sacrifice to save the people of the time, in other words, it had the same meaning as a human sacrifice, and it seems to have continued until the Edo period.

You can feel the unfathomable power of the deep religious faith of these people.

We returned to Nachi Taisha Shrine and presented the dedication paintings of Kumano Hongu Taisha and Nachi Taisha to the chief priest Otokonari.

After a mutual Q and A session, the chief priest happily agreed to receive the painting, after which we all underwent purification in a ceremony in the main hall.

We then reported the situation to the head priest of Seiganto-ji Temple.

It was already nearly 6pm when we rushed from Nachi Taisha to Kumano Hongu Taisha.

Here, we were reunited with Chief Priest Kuki and proposed creating a Kumano Mandala like that at Nachi Taisha.

The chief priest said that he wants to present the dedicated paintings not as a one-off event for the 20^th anniversary of the World Heritage Site campaign, but to promote Kumano’s permanent existence.

He said that next year is the year of the snake, and that it is time for Japan to break away from its past. He would like to use the dedicated paintings as the first step in a new beginning.

Today was a hard day, but it was a bright and cheerful day for the dedicated paintings to two shrines.