Old Mountain Temple #2
I paid 300 yen at San-mon Gate and started my ascent. Soon after that, a statue with horrible face caught my eye. It was the statue of Datsueba. Datsueba is a hag who is believed to be on the bank of the Sanzu River, which lies between this world and the next. She strips the dead people of their clothes. In the old days, pilgrimages changed their clothes here and offered these clothes to the statue of Datsueba and then climbed the mountain in new garments.
The stone steps make a winding path. Surrounded by ancient Japanese cedar trees, the path was rather dim. As I climbed the steps, I saw small stone statues, lanterns and carvings on the rocks here and there. These objects and the shade of the trees made a solemn atmosphere and reminded me that Mt. Houju-san had been a sacred place, known as the mountain where the souls of the dead gather, the boundary between this world and the next.
Walking 15 minutes or so, I reached “semi-zuka” or cicada mound. It is a stone monument to commemorate Matsuo Basho, a famed haiku poet of the early Edo period (17th Century). He made a well-known haiku (3 lined poem) about cicada here.
Stillness Penetrating the rocks The cicada’s cry
I visited Yamadera in the end of April when the cherry trees were in full bloom, so I did not hear the cicada’s cry. There were some stones good to sit on near semi-zuka. I took a rest on a stone, imagining Matsuo Basho also took a rest here.
