Injoji Sembon Emma-do (Kamigyo, Kyoto Temple headquarters) (Picture provided by author.)
If you happen to be in Kyoto during the sweltering summer months and you want to have a helluva time, you might consider visiting one of the ancient capital's "hell temples."
These include Rokudo Chinnoji, Saifukuji, Yatadera and Injoji (better known as the Senbon Enmado). The star at "hell temples" nationwide is usually Enma, the "King of Hell." He is the magistrate who judges the souls of the dead and hands out rewards or punishments depending upon the good or evil acts during their lifetime.
Some temples, however, also display disturbing depictions of the infernal regions. In loving detail, there are illustrations of ingenious tortures — such as sinners impaled on Needle Mountain, wallowing in the Pond of Blood or inhabiting other less-than-choice neighborhoods in the netherworld. As in Medieval Europe, such terrifying images were designed to frighten sinners so that they would mend their wicked ways.
Obon season (traditionally from August 13-16 in Kyoto) is the perfect time to visit such a temple.
Kyoto's Power Spots for the Dead
During the festival period, it is believed the spirits of the dead return for a brief sojourn in the world of the living where they can interact with their families. Many Kyoto residents can trace their family roots in the city back many generations and, being naturally conservative in temperament, they have zealously preserved traditions surrounding the Obon.
Ringing of the mukaegane ("welcoming bell") at Rokudo Chinnoji officially marks the start of the festival for many natives. During the Obon period, the area around it buzzes with crowds of visitors from Kyoto and elsewhere. At the end of Obon, ringing of the okurigane ("send-off bell") sending the ancestors on their way, traditionally takes place at Yatadera (Yataji). This is a small temple on Sanjo near Kawaramachi Dori.
Okuribi bonfires are also lit on five of the mountains surrounding the Kyoto basin on the evening of August 16. Their purpose is to guide back the spirits of the ancestors lucky enough to have found a home in the Western Paradise.
Shortly after Heiankyo (now Kyoto) was founded in 794, Emperor Kammu decreed that there should be no burials within the city proper. That was to prevent pollution from entering the capital. His decree led to the creation of three massive burial areas just outside the city, namely Toribeno, Rendaino and Adashino. Before the Buddhist custom of cremation became widely accepted, corpses were normally just dumped in one of these areas.
For centuries thereafter one of these three plains was likely to be the final destination for a resident of Kyoto. These sepulchral zones were regarded as haunted, taboo areas that people zealously avoided if possible.
Mysterious Powers
Funaokayama is a low, ark-shaped hill in northwest Kyoto that somewhat resembles a tortoise shell. Today a park on the summit of the 112-meter rise provides a strategic view of a good part of the city. Since ancient times it has been recognized as a mysterious spiritual power spot.
Emperor Kammu and his urban planners decided this was the ideal natural formation to serve as the northern spiritual bulwark for the new capital. They therefore situated the imperial palace so that Funaokayama stood directly to its rear. Later, goryo-e rituals in times of pestilence, rainmaking ceremonies, and prayers to control crop-devastating pests, were conducted on its summit.
In the Heian period, Funaokayama also became the site for the cremation and burial of several empresses. Many aristocrats began their journey to the next world from here, as well, as summed up in the expression, "the smoke of Funaokayama."
Understandably, the residents of Kyoto came to regard the hill as a cursed place best avoided, inhabited by spirits of the dead. Many eerie stories were told about it.
The plain on the west flank of Funaokayama constituted the Rendaino funeral area. Upper classes and other high-status individuals were cremated on Funaokayama or at Rendaino and buried at one of twelve small temples in the area. Injoji (Senbon Enmado), today a Shingon temple, was originally founded in 1017 during the late Heian period. It came to be considered the entrance to Rendaino, which stretched as far as Jobon Rendaiji temple.
Unearthly Judgments
Injoji is located on Senbon Dori. Today, Rendaino is largely ignored by tourists and Injoji still retains the plebian atmosphere of a neighborhood temple. The small, somewhat ramshackle temple only really comes alive during Obon, when its main objects of worship are on display. But it is worth a short visit at other times, also, if you want to get an idea about the Japanese view of death.
There are various explanations for how the street Senbon Dori got its name. One theory is that 1,000 stupa wooden grave tablets were erected along the road to console the departed souls of those buried in the neighborhood or cremated by nembutsu priests.
This is the story about how that came about.
A Nichiren Buddhist priest named Nichizo Shonin was transported to hell while undergoing fasting austerities in a cave in Yamato Province. There, a deceased emperor, who was suffering terrible torments, entreated him to recite sutras for the salvation of his soul and erect one thousand 1,000 stupas. Nichizo was subsequently restored to life and began building 1,000 stupas in the vicinity of Funaokayama. He might also have established the Senbon Enmado Hall at the Injoji.
The hall contains a huge 2.4-meter-tall statue of Enma dating from 1488, during the Muromachi Period. It is flanked by his judgment reader and record taker. Annually from August 7 to 16, the hall is lit by candles to provide a suitably unearthly atmosphere. Photography is not normally allowed within the hall.
'Genji Monogatari' Spooky Aftertale
Ono no Takamura (802-852) was a famous scholar and noted poet who lived during the early Heian period. His contemporaries considered him a strong-willed eccentric, with a deep connection to the occult. He was even said to possess many superhuman powers, which made him an object of fear.
According to one popular legend, Takamura was a court official during the daytime, but at night became the right-hand assistant to Enma. In other words, he freely moved back and forth between this world and the underworld.
The graves of Murasaki Shikibu, author of the Genji Monogatari, and Ono no Takamura are located together in a small alley-like recess off Horikawa Dori adjacent to an office building. The couple might seem a strange match, but there is more to their story, too.
After she died, Buddhist priests claimed Shikibu had been sent to hell for the sin of writing so entrancingly about love and sexual relations and consequently corrupting so many readers. However, according to one story, Takamura happened to be on duty when she was brought before Enma. Murasaki's prospects looked none too bright, until Takamura, who was standing to Enma's right, interceded on her behalf.
Today, there is a statue of Lady Murasaki on the grounds of Injoji. A 10-tier pagoda, supposedly erected in her honor in 1386, also sits on the grounds.
Other Rendaino Ghosts
The Obon season is also the setting for many ghost stories and other macabre tales. One connected to the Rendaino area dates from the 14th Century. It may, in fact, be the oldest surviving example of a legend of a baby being born in a grave.
It is about a renowned Jishu sect priest by the name of Kokua Shonin, and how he — a samurai by birth — entered the religious life. Born Hashizaki Kuniakira, he had been a retainer of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.
Kuniakira and his wife were living near Rendaino when the shogun ordered him to subdue a rebellion in Ise. While he was gone, Kuniakira's pregnant wife suddenly became ill and died. Due to his absence, only temporary funeral rites were conducted and she was buried in a cemetery in Rendaino.
Kuniakira was deeply saddened by the news since he had loved his spouse very much. Nevertheless, duty compelled him to stay in the field until his mission was completed.
Karmic Ghost Baby
Since Kuniakira was unable to conduct the proper rites for his departed spouse, every day he gave three small coins to beggars in order to merit the equivalent karmic blessing that he could use to comfort her soul.
It was only several months later, after the rebels had been vanquished, that he was able to return to the capital. After reporting to the shogun, Kuniakira rushed to the cemetery to offer incense at his wife's grave.
As he prayed, Kuniakira was startled by what he thought were faint cries of a baby coming from underground. As he stood there speechless, a stranger approached and identified himself as the owner of a nearby teahouse. The man told him that recently something very strange had been occurring.
Every evening around sunset a dark complexioned woman had come to his shop and bought three mon worth of mochi rice cakes. Finding that suspicious, the man had followed her until she disappeared into a Rendaino graveyard.
Kuniakira had a flash of understanding and ordered his attendants to quickly remove the earth from the grave. Then they opened up his wife's casket. Lying there next to her corpse was a newborn baby boy.
He knew at once that it was his wife's spirit that had purchased the mochi. Experiencing a sudden realization of the essential transience of life, Kuniakira thereupon abandoned his weapons. He left the infant to be raised by the teahouse owner and renounced the secular world.
For More Kyoto Stories
Every May, Injoji hosts performances of the Senbon Daibutsu Kyogen. These are comic folk plays based on Buddhist themes. The event has been registered as an Intangible Folk-Cultural Property by Kyoto City.
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Author: John Carroll
