For me, Kosayan is a sacred place.
It might be difficult for young people to imagine today, but in the 1970s, there was no air conditioning anywhere, not in central government buildings, and certainly not in regular households. I took my college entrance examination 10 years before that, and even if it wasn’t as hot then as it is now, the extreme heat of summer posed formidable challenges for students as they prepared for the test. During summer vacation when I was a senior in high school, my parents arranged for me to spend about a month in a room at a Shukubo lodgings in Koyasan, where I retreated with my books to study. There weren’t any cram schools at the time, so my passing of the exam was the result of the time I spent studying in the cool air and quiet of Koyasan and, even more importantly, the miraculous help of Kukai. A half-century later, the cool stones leading to Okuno-in, cloaked in darkness despite the morning hour, still appear before my eyes.
I only know a small part of the Kumano Kodo, but I was able to experience its mysterious sublimity. It is my hope that more people, Japanese and foreigners alike, will visit Kii, where the gods dwell.