The Land of 8000000 Dieties

After Yuki temple, the path gets very curvy. This part of the trail is referred as a Tsuzuraori Sandou (ninety and nine turns path). There are many hairpin curves and I started to get out of breath.

As you walk up the path, hidden from the view because of all the trees, is the statue titled “Life: Love, Light and Power” (picture above). Suddenly it appears before you as you come around the bend, it looks very modern and very different compared to what I have seen so far. This statue symbolizes the teaching of Kurama temple and the 3 deities that Kurama temple worships. Each ring represents one of the concepts of Love, Light and Power and the deities that go along with them.

Kwan Yin symbolizes Love and represents The Spirit of the Moon.
Bishamonten symbolizes Light and represents The Spirit of the Sun.
Mao symbolizes Power and represents The Spirit of the Earth.


Right across from the Statue of Love, Light and Power is the SouFuku (Double bliss) area. The Bridge connecting two temples is called SouFuku Bridge. One of the temples is Tamasugi Daikokuten and the other is Tamasugi Ebisuson.

Tamasugi is a cedar wood that has leaves curled up like a ball.

Ebisuson and Daijokuten are two of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune.
DaikokuTen is God of the Earth, Wealth, Prosperity, Farmers, Flood Control, Agriculture, Rice & the Kitchen.
Ebisu is God of Fishermen, Good Fortune, and Honest Labor.

I am started to notice how much Mt. Kurama is filled with different deities and spirits. I have gotten used to visiting Catholic or Christian churches who worship one God. I am starting to remember what it was like to be in a country where there are 8000000 gods (deities). There is god for everything. There is a prosperity god, a laughing god, and even a poor god and bad luck god that you want to avoid. Visiting all these small temples with different deities and spirits brought up my desire to study them when I go back to the U.S.