Journey : Ise ~ Kumano to Tenkawa 9

Stories have been told about a sacred stone statue that proves the existence of a vanished civilization from more than twenty thousand years ago. The statue is said to be hidden in the deep woods of the territory of God of Tamaki Jinjya that is the sacred place for both Shinto and Shugen-do. This story was not known by the priests of Tamaki Jinjya.

I personally heard this story from a leader of a religious group. This man established a religious organization that became independent from Shugen-do (see last article for meaning). When I was at a meeting with a group discussing about Mt.Tamaki, the leader disclosed the story about a sacred statue. The secret of the secrets was revealed only because the people gathered at this meeting were limited to qualified members. The strictly confidential information was that a stone statue of Buddha was concealed in the deepest forest of Mt.Tamaki. It was told that only the best monks in Shugen-do were permitted to worship the figure.

Early in the Meiji Era, an anti-Buddhist movement took place. The movement led the removal or destruction of Buddhist icons from the sacred territory of Shinto. Most of the stone statues of Buddha in Mt. Tamaki were destroyed by the movement. However, some of the very special ones were sheltered to be escaped from the movement.

Even when the selected monks were allowed to worship the statue, they were strictly told by their master not to look at the figure. If one had looked into the figure, he would eventually lose his eyesight. The threat may have been thought only to hide the uncommon stone statue from the public. However, with the religions related to Mt.Ohmine, the actual forfeiture of eyesight truly occurs when a wishful prayer is made. Gan-kake usually means, “putting out a wishful prayer”, but Gan-kake can also be read as loosing an eye (eyes).

In spite of this saying, the religious leader (the man I heard the story from), when he went to worship this Buddha for his second time, he glanced up the image! He said that the statue had a foreign feature. The closest image he could express was the Moai statue found on the solitary island in the Pacific Ocean.

When I heard this story, it reminded of an incident.

Koujin-Take (荒神岳) was the mountain which I used to climb alone in the old days. The Koujin-Take is next to Kōya-San (高野山). God Shiva, which is a derivative of Susanoo, is said to descend to Koujin-Take while dancing in a blue form. And the Koujin-Take is the mountain where a spiritual existence threatened Kūkai (a notable monk, founder of the Shingon) every night. When Kūkai was preparing for founding of Koya-San, the existence appeared accompanied by a thunder storm and extorted Kūkai by saying, “Worship me. Otherwise my retainers of more than one hundred thousand shall destroy you.” Kūkai was obliged to show a willingness to compromise and erected a shrine to worship the intimidator.

On one clear day, when I had worshipped Mt.Ohmine from the Koujin-Take, I witnessed an image of a shining gold Moai statue with psychic vision. I didn’t know the meaning of the image at that time. But it was revealed that this image is the true form of Kongou-Zaoh-Gongen (the most supreme God for Shugen-do). Here today, the story of the stone statue completely coincided with my former experience.

This hidden story was revealed to me only because we are already in the Heisei Era. Was it all right to make this public? If it was the Showa Era, I may have been punished and destroyed.

To be continued・・・

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

Journey : Ise ~ Kumano to Tenkawa 8

Tamaki-Jinjya shrine is the inner shrine of the so-called Kumano-San-Zan and at the same time the inner sanctuary for the Shugendo (syncretic religious order which combined elements of ancient pre- Buddhist worship of mountains with the doctrine and ritual of Esoteric Buddhism). In the times when the capital of Japan was located in Nara and Kyoto, the vast areas from Nara, Yoshino to Kumano was the source of it’s power, the interference coming from the World of Spirits.

Years later, Kūkai (notable Japanese monk, 774~835) introduced the Esoteric Buddhism into this area, which made the area the spiritual center for incantations and prayers as well as curses. In some periods, this area had considerable influences on succession of the Emperor of Japan, politics and assassinations behind the scenes. From the early times, there are some particular spots in this area that have the spiritual power to accelerate the strength of the human will. The territory of God in Tamaki-Jinjya is one of the important spots.

It is not clearly known when Tamaki-Jinjya was built, but the historic studies indicate that the shrine may have erected at least before Christ.

From the prehistoric times, the area where Tamaki-Jinjya is located has highly been esteemed for thousands of years as the important spot for nature worship. In fact, only in the territory of God of Tamaki-Jinjya, there are several great trees that have survived for more than three thousand years, which are largest in the Kinki district.

My last visit to Tamaki-Jinjya dates back as far as 25 years. The change of scenery around the old shrine astonished me. The entrance path to the shrine was renovated and the leaves of the trees alongside the path were trimmed. In the past, the trees stood naturally and the piles of fallen leaves on the path made it look like an animal trail. After a radio tower was built at the top of the territory of God, the Tamaki area changed.

An electro-magnetic wave broadcasted from the radio tower seemed to drive the spiritual existence away. Long ago, when I used to visit here, a group of Tengu (long-nosed forest goblins) used to follow me jumping around. The number of the Tengu was largest among all shrines I had ever visited. I sensed that the Tengu punishes mercilessly if somebody disrespects the sacred ground.

In former days, I think the priests of the shrine were guided not to clean the entrance path even if they wanted. The nature spirits do not like the trees to be cut down. The decrease of the nature spirits was thought to contribute to the freedom where people are able to clean up the shrine and its territory. However, I wish there were the surroundings still left, similar to the famous animated movie“Mononoke-Hime”(directed by H.Miyazaki). If the future progress in the communication technology could eliminate the radio tower, the spiritual existence of Tamaki district may come back.

This time, I sensed a few Kenzoku (a spirit entity that serves under a god) gathering at the place for prayer. I assume this situation will continue all the way to the far future.

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

A great man Kūkai who wrote a “moving” letter

Kūkai was called 眞魚 (mao) during his childhood. It means “true fish”. Kūkai had descended from the World of Gods of planet Venus. At the time of his descent, I sense that the 龍宮神界 (the World of the Sea God’s Palace) was intervening as an Ubusuna-kami (regional god) to guide his soul into this realm of reality. And that is why he was named Mao in his childhood. When your soul is blessed and protected by the World of the Sea God’s Palace, it is said that you will have great success in this World of Reality. The spiritual source of wealth and abundance in this World of Reality derives from the ocean. Therefore, my first impression of Kūkai was “the vastness of the ocean.” Ku of Kūkai (空海) means “sky”, so it could also be the sea of clouds in the sky. This interpretation would be spiritually correct.

As I was thinking about this, a vision came into my mind. At the temple in the back of Mt Kōya, there is a stone monument in the back garden. The stone has an imprint of Kūkai’s own handwriting. It has just one letter 空 (kū) which means sky, air, empty or nothing. This handwriting is very unique. It is slanted and it looks like a steam that is disappearing into the open air. The bottom half of the letter looks like it dissipates. The letter is alive. Kūkai’s handwriting is usually a block style in solid square letters. So this was very unusual and gave me a strong impression. When he was born, the God Spirits of the Ccean was interfering with him, but as he became an adult he was more connected to the sun, Amaterasu-ohomikami, and the mountains on earth, Kunitokotachi-no-Ookami. He was as free as the vast sea of clouds.

Eventually, everyone of us will dissipate like the clouds in the sky. We are now standing in between the earth and the sky. If we are going to evaporate one day anyways, we might as well really try to “live” this precious moment.

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

The Connection between Heart and Material

Comment from reader: By reading the last blog, a thought came to me. There is a traditional way to process silver ore into pure silver. To explain the process briefly, you let the bone ashes absorb impurities. The impurities along with lead will eventually be all absorbed by the ashes and only pure silver remains. I felt that the human world is the same. In order to become pure, we mix the impurities and refine it to become the genuine element. I want to try not to become the impurity. I thought that the elevation of the dimensions might be just like this chemical phenomenon.

Reply: In the World of Reality, the dimension we live in, all levels of souls are gathered in one place. No matter what sort of environment you are raised in, some do cruel things and some try to help others. For our hearts to mature, both good and bad influences are necessary. The only place where hearts can mature is in this World of Reality. In other dimensions, even in the World of Gods, there is an order where hearts could not mature. It remains in the same condition as when you had entered the dimension.


Even if you’ve managed to have any negative interference in your social life, you might have some health problem and need interference of others in the process of your treatment. As long as you live, you will be interfering with others. Both positive and negative stimulations are necessary for us to mature. When you have recognized that you had received an impure stimulation, simply let it go along with the same quality that you had with you. If people say bad things about you, simply let it go and stop doing the same to others. If people said good things to you that made you happy, do the same to others. If you continue to work on this process, what kind of heart do you think will remain?


This is the same idea of alchemy in the Western mysticism. Alchemy was about purifying a substance into a pure material. This also implicates the idea to change human souls into a pure and harmonious one. The aim was to become one with god. A man who had practiced this in his real life in Japan is Kūkai*. Kūkai was very knowledgeable about minerals. Some experts explain the reason why he opened a temple in Mt.Kōya is because the area has a rich underground vein of mercury. When Kūkai was studying in China, I sense that he was introduced to the Western alchemy and attained a secret ritual that has something to do with the correlation between mercury and the human spirit body. The temple complex built on Mt.Kōya, the pillars are painted in 朱色, vermillion color. To make this particular paint, mercury is used. Layers of vermillion that is made with mercury is also used as a base coat on the Buddhist statue.


Actually, Ise is also a producing center of mercury from the ancient times. Ise district has a rich underground vein of mercury. The color of the circle of light that represents the sun goddess, Amaterasu-Ohomikami witnessed through my vision at Izawa-no-miya of The Grand Shrine of Ise is exactly this vermillion color. Mercury is the most adequate mineral that is necessary to create a color that expresses the most significant god. The spiritual vibrational energy that is radiated from mercury is exquisite and gives effect to stabilize human brain-wave.

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live



*Kūkai (空海) or also known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師), 774–835 CE was a Japanese monk, scholar, poet, and artist, founder of the Shingon or "True Word" school of Buddhism.

From 05-Oct-2008