Okunoin (Mount Koya) · Among Two Hundred Thousand Tombstones

Okunoin, on Mount Koya, is where Kukai entered his eternal meditation, and the largest cemetery in Japan: two hundred thousand tombstones among the cedars, with little direct sunlight even at midday.

Along the approach stand monuments to people who should not have died, and memorial towers put up by companies for workers they laid off.

Those who keep the night watch say the lamps here are never allowed to go out. Once a lamp dies, the path no longer tells you whose it is.

Historical Mysteries / Wakayama · Japan / 816