Mapping Mount Kōya, one of Japan’s Most Revered Pilgrimage Sites

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the earliest surviving hand-coloured manuscript maps as well as later printed maps of Mount Kōya, (高野山, Kōyasan in Japanese), a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Japan's most revered pilgrimage sites with several hundreds of temples. It was founded 1200 years ago in 816 by the famous Buddhist monk Kūkai, 空海, 774–835, also known as Kōbō Daishi, 弘法大師. Several exhibitions were held recently in Japan and many books published to commemorate the anniversary.

KEYWORDS:

• Kūkai
• Kōyasan
• Pilgrimage
• Okunoin Cemetery
• the earliest surviving manuscript map of Kōyasan
• later printed maps

Notes on contributor

Dr Gabor Lukacs is a retired scientist and Japanologist. He earned his PhD from Université de Paris, Sorbonne in 1964.  He is the author of about 160 scientific papers and four books about Japanese medicine and cultural history: Kaitai Shinsho & Geka Sôden, HES & De GRAAF Publishers, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2008; Extensive Marginalia in Old Japanese Medical Books, Wayenborgh Publisher, Paraguay, 2010 (European and North American distributor: Kugler Publications, Amsterdam, 2010, The Netherlands); Chinese Dermatology on a Japanese Handscroll (with Dr Alain Briot), Wayenborgh Publisher, 2012; Hasshu Gafu, the Japanese Edition of Bazhong Huapu, an Important Chinese Painting Manual (with Lauriane Yiheng Luo), Wayenborgh Publisher, 2013. He has also published two papers in The Cartographic Journal (in 2014 and in 2016).

Notes

1 Exhibition Catalogue (1988) Shingon, Die Kunst des Geheimen Buddhismus in Japan Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst der Stadt Köln, Cologne; Abe, R. (1999) The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse New York: Columbia University Press; Shiba, R. (2003) Kūkai: The Universal Scenes from his life New York: ICG Muse.

2 Nicoloff, P.L. (2007) Sacred Kōyasan: A Pilgrimage to the Mountain Temple of Saint Kōbō Daishi and the Great Sun Buddha New York: University of New York Press, pp.43–45.

3 Bogel, C.J. (2009) With a Single Glance, Buddhist Icons and Early Mikkyo Vision University of Washington Press, p.250. (The term “Vajra Peak” derives from the Vajrasekhara Sūtra, in Japanese Kongōchō Kyō (金剛頂経), one of the founding texts of the Japanese Buddhist Shingon school.)

4 Gardiner, D. (1992) Kōyasan, Japan, p.120, Head Temple Kongōbuji Printing Office of Kōyasan Shuppansha.

5 Abe, Ryūichi. (1999) op. cit., p.60.

6 Kitayama, H. and Tsuchida, B.T. (1975)(trans.) Heike Monogatari Tokyo: University of Tōkyō Press; Monogatari, H. (1960) Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei, vols. 32–33, Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten.

7 Nicoloff (2007) op. cit., p.xv.

8 Takechi, S. (1812) Kiinokuni Meishozue, 紀伊の国名所図絵 (Famous Places in Kii Province), Ōsaka: Ono Hirotaka and Ueda Kōchō.

9 Kinoshita, H. (2015) Kōyasan Chōsekidō Nyūmon, 高野山町石道入門, p.11, Tōkyō: Seluba.

10 Kouamé, N. (2001) Pélérinage et Société dans le Japon des Tokugawa: Le Pélérinage de Shikoku entre 1598 et 1868 Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient; Pye, Michael. (2014) Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage Sheffield Equinox.

11 Oral communication by Kōyasan University Library.

12 Gardiner (1992) op. cit., p.26.

13 Gardiner (2002) op. cit., p.28.

14 Ri, 里 and Chō, 町, are distance units; 1 Ri = ca. 4 km; 1 Chō = 109.1 metres.

15 Inagaki, H. (1988) A Dictionary of Buddhist Terms Kyōto: Nagata Bunshodo.

16 Kinoshita, H. (2015) Kōyasan Okunoin no Sekitō Nyūmon, 高野山奥の院の石塔入門, p.27, Tōkyō: Seluba.

17 Hōnen, 1133–1212, was the reformer and founder of the first independent branch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, called Jōdo-shū, 浄土宗; his tombstone is illustrated in Kinoshita (2015) op. cit., p.38.

18 I have identified the names of all the villages, the ten valleys within the site of Kōyasan, most of the small temples of mid-seventeenth century Kōyasan and studied in detail all the 12 ‘kuzushiji’ inscriptions on the Shōhō map about the nature of the roads within the site whether available for horses or pedestrians only. Since those details might be of great interest to Japanese cartography specialists, but of lesser interest to our readers, I will not reproduce them in this article. However, upon request, I will be delighted to provide them to any interested reader.

19 Cao, Wanru, Zheng, Xihuang, Huang, Shengzhang. (1994) An Atlas of Ancient Maps of China Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House; Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping. (1998) China in Ancient and Modern Maps London: Sotheby's; Yee, Cordell D.K. (2015) “Maps and Map-Making in China and Korea” In Parmentier, J. (Ed.) The World in a Mirror. World Maps from the Middle Ages to the Present Day Kontich, Antwerp: BAI/MAS, pp.100–107.

20 Unno, K. (1994) ““Cartography in Japan” In Harley, J.B. and Woodward, D. (Eds) The History of Cartography (Volume 2) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp.346-477; Catalogue of the Kōbe City Museum. (2000); Yonemoto, M. (2003) Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place and Culture in the Tokugawa Period Berkeley: University of California Press; Berry, M.E. (2006) Japan in Print: Information and Nation in the Early Modern Period University of Southern California Press; Wigen, K., Sugimoto, F. and Karakas, C. (Eds) (2016) Cartographic Japan, A History in Maps Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

21 Fowler, S.D. (2008) “Views of Japanese Temples from Near and Far: Precinct Prints of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries” Artibus Asiae 68 (2) pp.247–285.

22 Sugimoto, F. (2016)“Visualizing the Political World through Provincial Maps” pp.48–51, in Widen et al. (2016) op. cit.

23 Kawamura, H. (1987) Edo Bakufusen Kuniezu no Kenkyū, (Provincial Maps Compiled by the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan), Lecture presented at the 12^th International Congress of the History of Cartography Paris, pp.1–7; Kawamura, H. (1989) Edo Bakufusen Kuniezu no Kenkyū Tōkyō: Kokon Shoin.

24 Reader, I. (2005) Making Pilgrimages: Meaning and Practice in Shikoku Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

25 Fowler, S.D. (2005) Murōji: Rearranging Art and History of at a Japanese Buddhist Temple Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Gongen (権現) means literally ‘incarnation’, it is believed to be the manifestation of a Buddha.

26 Harley, J.B. and Woodward, D. (Eds) (1994) The History of Cartography, vol.2, Plate 22. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

27 Fowler (2008) op. cit., p.250, figures 5 and 6.

28 Fowler (2008) op. cit., p.251, figure 7.

29 Kōyasan Shaji Sankei Mandara (1987) Ōsaka Shiritsu Hakubutsukan, n° 26, Tōkyō: Heibonsha.

30 Yee, C.D.K. (1994) “Taking the World's Measure: Chinese Maps between Observation and Text” In Harley, J.B. and Woodward, D. (Eds) The History of Cartography (Volume 2) Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, pp.110–113.

31 Unno (1994) op. cit., p.353.

32 Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping (1998) op. cit., p.40, No.20 and p.41, No.21.

33 Yee, C.D.K. (1994)“Reinterpreting Traditional Chinese Geographical Maps” In Harley, J.B. and Woodward D. (Eds), The History of Cartography (Volume 2) p.66, Fig. 3.31.

34 Yee (1994) op. cit., p.67, Fig.3.32.

35 Yee, C.D.K. (1994)“Chinese Cartography among the Arts: Objectivity, Subjectivity, Representation” In Harley, J.B. and Woodward, D. (Eds.) The History of Cartography (Volume 2) p.146, Fig.6.11.

36 Kornicki, P.F. (2001) The Book in Japan University of Hawai'i Press, p.170.

37 The Gakuryo was a specific group of monks giving lectures, producing doctrinal and ritual texts and participating in debates.

38 The Gyōnin group of monks carried out various tasks for the livelihood of the temples.

39 The author would like to express his most sincere thanks to Piasu Junko and to Chammakhi Adel for their extraordinary help during the conception, writing and practical preparation of this manuscript. Without their very generous contribution, this paper would not have been completed. Piasu Junko helped to decipher many very intricate Japanese texts and Chammakhi Adel provided his invaluable computer expertise for the illustration of the maps.

40 The author is pleased to thank Mr Tarui Toshinari, professional photographer, Ōsaka, for allowing us to study the privately owned Kyōhō and Bunka maps.

41 The road from Kamuro, crossing Kamiya, was the former starting point to Kōyasan from Kyōto and Ōsaka.

42 As portrayed on earlier maps, the old Daimon (Great Gate) was built at a different place when Kōyasan was founded. It was a torii (shrine style gate) in Tsuzuraori valley, located more southward than its place nowadays. It was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1705, a few years before the present map was drawn. Dakeno-benzaiten is a small shrine on the top of Benten-Dake (弁天岳) mountain on the north-side of the Great Gate.　

43 The large waterfall is located south of Kōyasan.

44 Yadate and Amano are unidentified place names.

45 Béranger, Véronique. (2002) Les Recueils Illustrés de Lieux Célèbres (meisho zue), Objets de Collection Ebisu, No.29, pp.81–113.

46 Akisato, R. (1797) Tōkaidō Meisho Zue, 東海道名所図会, Illustrations of the Famous Sites on the Tōkaidō, Kobayashi Shinbei, Edo. In the corrected modern edition (2002) pp.80–81, Gencho, Kyōto.

47 Fowler (2008) op. cit. p.254.

48 Kerlen, H. (1996) Catalogue of Pre-Meiji Japanese Books and Maps in Public Collections in the Netherlands, p. 410, no 960, J.C. Gieben, Amsterdam.

49 The undated map was probably etched during the last years of the Ansei Period, (November 1854–March 1860).

50 For the history of Japanese nineteenth-century etchings, see, Clark, J. (1994) “Japanese Nineteenth-Century Copperplate Printes” British Museum Occassional Paper 84 pp.1-9; Tim Clark, London. John Clark investigated Japanese etchings made in the period 1830–1860, preserved in four collections: (a) Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow; (b) National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; (c) British Museum, London and (d) Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia.

51 The general Gengendō engraving technique was described in Nishimura's book; see, Nishimura, Tei. (1982) Nihon Dōbanga Shi Kyōto: Fujimori Shoten, pp.458–463.

52 Fowler (2008) op. cit., p. 273.

53 Screech, T. (1994) “The Meaning of Western Perspective in Edo Popular Culture” Archives of Asian Art 47 p.66.

54 Screech, T. (2002) The Lens Within the Heart: Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan Richmond: Curzon Press, pp.94–132.

55 Clark (1994) op. cit., p.8.

56 Okada Shuntōsai, a Kyōto to etcher, was also a print seller. His full personal name was Gishichirō and he also used the name Yoshifusa. Minamoto is found as a seal fairly commonly on Shuntōsai prints which may indicate his real name. Clark (1994) op. cit., p.40.

57 Clark (1994) op. cit., Plate S-14.

58 According to the text within the map, its engraver (彫刻人) was 泉擽山, Izumi Rakuzan. However, the left part of the second character of his name in the manuscript text was clearly written as ⺩ rather than 扌. In my Chinese and Japanese dictionaries no Chinese character composed by ⺩ and 楽 is known. Therefore, I think that the mentioned character might have been mistakenly written in the map and the correct character in the artist's name was probably 擽.

59 Gardiner (1992) op. cit., p.60.

60 The new currency act of 1871 stipulated the adoption of the decimal accounting system with 1 Yen = 100 Sen, (100 銭). See Anon. (n.d.) “History of the Japanese Yen” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_yen (Accessed 24th Auguest 2014); Piatt, A. (1904) “The End of the Mexican Dollar” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 18 (3) p.345.

61 The realization of our investigation was only made possible with the collaboration of Kōyasan University Library placing at our disposal a specially prepared reduced size copy, 130.0 × 54.0 cm, of the Shōhō map. The reviewers deserve recognition for graciously providing very helpful comments on various parts of this article.

62 Hinonishi, S. and collaborators. (1988) Kōyasan Koezu Shūsei, 高野山古絵図集成, (Collection of old maps of Kōyasan) Ōsaka: Takarashashinseihan, pp.114–116; Hinonishi, S. and collaborators, (1988) Kōyasan Koezu Shūsei Kaisetsu Sakuin, 高野山古絵図集成解説索引, (Collection of old maps of Kōyasan, explanatory index) Ōsaka: Takarashashinseihan, p.31.