Kumano Magaibutsu

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Investigado y escrito por Hinato

Kumano Magaibutsucliff carvingsKunisakiRokugo ManzanBungotakada

Photo: Hajime NAKANO from Tokyo, Japan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · original

Two figures are cut into a rock face in the hills of the Kunisaki peninsula: a Dainichi Nyorai about 6.7 metres high and a Fudo Myoo about 8 metres, both from the end of the Heian period and among the oldest and largest cliff carvings in Japan. They are Important Cultural Properties.

Getting to them is the experience. From Taizoji temple the path climbs about 300 metres of hillside and then turns into a staircase of unworked boulders — legend has it that an oni built it in a single night as a condition for being allowed to eat the local people, and failed. The steps are uneven, loose in places and steeper than they look in photographs; the temple keeps walking sticks at the bottom for anyone who wants one, which tells you what to expect. The Fudo Myoo at the top has a face that is unexpectedly mild for the wrath deity, and it is the reason people make the climb twice.

Información esencial

Horario

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (April–October) | 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM (November–March)

Cerrado: Open year-round

Entrada

¥300 adults and high school students | ¥150 elementary and junior high school

Mejor temporada

April–November for safer footing on the stone stairway | Mid-late November for autumn colour in the valley

Duración de la visita

45 minutes – 1 hour including the climb

Cómo llegar

Información de acceso

Tashibu-hirano, Bungotakada City, entered through Taizoji temple. By car from Bungotakada town centre; no practical public transport. Admission ¥300 adults and high school students, ¥150 elementary and junior high school. Roughly 300 m of hill path followed by an irregular stone stairway; free walking sticks are available at the base. Not accessible for anyone with limited mobility.

Guía privilegiada

**The stairway is the reason people turn back.** Unworked boulders, uneven risers, no handrail on much of it. Take a stick from the rack even if you think you will not need it, and do not attempt it in smooth-soled shoes or after heavy rain. **Ten to fifteen minutes up, and it feels longer.** Budget 45 minutes to an hour for the round trip including time at the carvings. **Look at the Fudo Myoo's expression.** Fudo is conventionally furious. This one is not, and the softness is what art historians single out about the Kunisaki carvings generally. **Taizoji at the bottom is covered in gold stickers.** Visitors press gold foil onto the small statues in the precinct for luck, and the effect is startling next to the austerity above. It is a recent custom, not an ancient one. **Fukiji is nearby.** The two together are the standard Kunisaki half day, and Fukiji's hall is the counterweight to this cliff — nine hundred years of the same faith, one in stone and one in wood.

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