Tenporin temple

This is Tenporin temple. Inside of this temple is a huge Amida Budda about 16ft tall. You can only see the upper body of the statue and it is guarded by the fence, so that you cannot touch it. There is a rope hanging from the hand of the statue and by holding that rope is equivalent of touching the Amida’s hand. There also is a device called Tenporin it is said that spinning it once will have same effect as chanting 10,000 times. This is a very nice place to meditate. I also enjoyed watching other people meditating.

Café and Dragon

Senshintei (Washing your mind) Café is the only café in Mt.Kurama after the main gate. It is nice to stop by after climbing up so many stairs and refresh my body as well as my mind. They have a very traditional Japanese café menu, like Amazake (sweet sake) and Ameyu (hot sweet ginger water). What is also unique about this café is that it is located below the Tenporin temple. So, you could be sitting right below the Amida statue while you are enjoying some tea and not know about it. There also is a vending machine for tea right next the café, but I highly recommend experiencing this very traditional Japanese café.



Located in front of Tenporin Temple, this dragon looks as if he is guarding the water and the temple. This is another place you would want to cleanse your mouth and your hands. For detailed instruction, please check my previous blog. This dragon, and many other water spots throughout Kurama mountain, has a sign that says “Thank you, water” For me this trip brought up more appreciation for the nature.

Middle gate & Temple of Art Godess

Chuumon (middle gate) is one of the energy spots where many people feel an energy shift when they cross the gate. I felt like there was a cool breeze coming toward me every time I stepped inside of the gate. I would hear the sound of the wind when there was no physical wind blowing in the air. I went in and out of the gate to experiment little. Also another important thing to remember is not to step on the big wooden piece that is on a ground at the gate. The piece of wood that runs across the gate at ground level is placed here intentionally, so one must take care not to step on it, but step over it as you enter the gate.


Here is a Temple of Benzaiten. Benzaiten is another one of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune. She is the Goddess of music, poetry, learning, art, the sea, and the protector of children. Her temples and shrines are generally in the neighborhood of water - the sea, a river, or a pond. I stopped over there and paid my respects to the temple, wishing for good photographs from this trip from the art goddess. I felt like I had a tap on my shoulder from her.

Speical Edition: Reiki Prayer at Mt. Kurama

Thank you so much for those of you who requested the Reiki Prayer and ordered a pdf photo at Mt. Kurama.

I was able to send prayers on 3/29, 30 and 4/11 at various locations at Mt. Kurama. I was happy to hear when some of you reported that you did feel a shift in your life after the prayers. I hope you all enjoyed the energy from the Mt. Kurama.

Here are the choices of the photo designs for those of you who ordered a pdf photo.
Please follow the directions below.

1. Please select a design from above that you like and email me the title.
2. Please send your payment to photo@purplefishhealing.com through Paypal, $10 for English or Japanese only, $17 for one in English and one in Japanese.
3. You will receive an email with the pdf attached of a photo with your personalized prayer requested by you.
4. Print it out, frame it or do whatever you desire!


For those of you who did not have chance to order a pdf photo before, stay tuned for the Reiki Photography Store! More photographs in print, posters, postcard, Christmas cards and calendars to come!

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.

Yuki temple & 800 Years Old Japanese Ceder

This is the gate of Yuki Jinjya (Yuki temple). This temple is famous for their fire festival. It is also known as a temple for protecting you from fire disasters, helping have an easy childbirth, relationships, calming of disease, and getting rid of bad luck and bringing good luck in. It is also appointed as one of the national treasures.

As you can see in this picture and inside of the gate in the picture on a left is a tall Japanese cedar. This tree is worshiped as a sacred tree and also a tree that makes your wishes come true. It’s about 800 years old and 53 meters high. I really felt the energy of the tree and felt calm just standing in front of it.



This is the main temple building of the Yuki Jinjya. As we walked by, there were people inside the temple being blessed as you can see in this photo. You need to make a special arrangement to be blessed by the temple. It is 6000 yen (about $60) for once or 30,000 yen (about $300) for a whole year of blessings every morning.

They actually do have a live web cam set at four different spots at this temple. This is so neat! I feel like I am almost there without actually being there. It’s also a lot of fun to watch people pay their respects at the temple. I like to leave the site open at the corner of my computer screen while I am working and watch the people who come to visit and reminisce about my visit to the temple.
Just remember, if you live in the East Coast of the U.S, we have 13-14hrs of time difference. You get to see more people if you visit the site after our dinner time.

http://www.yukijinjya.jp/keidainew-live.html

Waterfall & Temple for the Warriors

Along the path a few minutes walk from Kushikura Inari sha Temple you see a little waterfall, “Mao No Taki” (Water fall of Mao). In a little temple on a cliff (see picture on left) is a statue of Mao. Mao is one of the 3 deities that is worshiped at Kurama temple. I will talk more about it when I get to the main temple where they keep all 3 statues.
It is a customary for people who are seeking enlightenment to sit under a waterfall for extended periods of time to meditate. Master Usui could have been there meditating almost a 100 years ago! However, the sign by the waterfall asks people not to go near the waterfall because a falling rock may hit you.


By the waterfall is the Kiichi Hougen Sha (Temple for Kiichi Hougen). Kiichi Hougen is a teacher of a famous historical warrior Yoshitune. Yoshitune grew up in Mt. Kurama and there are many spots that are dedicated to him throughout the Mountain. A year long television drama series about Yoshitune was aired from April 05-Mar 06, so there were many visitors coming to Mt. Kurama to see where Yoshitune was raised, probably a lot more than people who came to visit the place for Reiki. You would pay your respects to the temple in a same manner as before. Being that this temple is dedicated to someone who was a talented swordsmen and martial artist, many people who would like to improve their athletic/martial art skills comes to visit here.