Japan Navigator

Koka, the southern part of Shiga Prefecture, is ninja country. The ninja were professional spies, possessing their own camouflage techniques and specialized tools, and they flourished in the wars of the medieval period. As so many things in Japan, they developed their own schools and regional varieties, of which Koka was one of the most famous. Don’t expect to find any iron stars flying around anymore: ninja never were the superheroes popular fiction has made of them and the secret techniques were already in the Edo period standardized into a publicized martial art system.

Rather then any ninja remains, what strikes us is the great number of pharmaceutical companies when we alight from the train in Koka. There is a whole wall of advertisements by such companies in front of the train platform and they are all local.

[Countryside near Rakuyaji - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

The line to Koka starts in Kusatsu, an old post station where the Tokaido and Nakasendo highways came together. The line is a single track that only was electrified in 1980. In the morning and evening there are many commuters to the factories and offices of Kyoto, but when we ride the line, in the middle of the day, the train is almost deserted. For the first few stations we see many buildings, but gradually after Kibukawa countryside takes over. Aburai, where we alight, is almost the end of the line, and lies close to the border with Mie Prefecture.

It is warm, but not hot, so we walk from the small station. There is anyway no other means of transport in view. There is a sign pointing the way to our temple, and another to the Aburai Shrine, where a festival seems to be going on, as we see groups of farmers heading in that directions in their small trucks. The countryside is green, birds sing, it one of the mist peaceful places we have seen.

[Entrance of Rakuyaji - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

The road takes through a pass and a wood, and then descends to a hamlet where we soon find our destination, Rakuyaji Temple. The temple stands in the foothills of the Suzuka Hills, in a farmers village. There are paddies all around. Rakuyaji’s foundation goes back to the Heian period, at the end of the 8^th century. According to a temple legend, the famous priest Saicho, who would later establish Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto, came here looking for lumber to build the main hall of his new temple.

In a dream he was told to carve a Eleven-faced Kannon image from a living oak tree. This was in 792. Ten years later the famous generalissimo and conqueror of the emishi in northern Japan, Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, came to the area in order to punish rebels living in the nearby Suzuka Hills. He prayed to Saicho’s Kannon image for success in his campaign and later donated a temple hall. The temple flourished and even had subtemples, but all have vanished now. In the storehouse behind the main hall the remaining statues of all these temples have been collected.

[The withered oak - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Saicho’s tree gave the temple its name: ‘Rakuya’ means ‘Oak Field.’ In modern Japanese this tree is called ‘kunugi’ and, to be precise, in English it is a ‘Japanese chestnut oak.’ We see a sample in the temple grounds, presumably very old, because the vicissitudes of tree life have left it as not more than a mere stump. We presume the tree was hit by lightning. From the stump a few branches stick out and one of them even carries a some green leaves. Life goes on.

We are led to the storehouse by the old priest. Unfortunately, the main Kannon image is kept in a altar cabinet that is only opened on November 3 every year. It is a three meter tall statue of a seated Kannon from the early Fujiwara period. But Rakuyaji has enough other treasures to offer: there are more than 20 statues in the storehouse.

We are struck by the beauty of an early Heian period Holy Kannon and the seated Amida that seems to greet us when we enter. There is also a Bishamon carrying a pagoda in his right hand – the temple links this Bishamon with the generalissimo who stood at its foundation.

[Main Hall of Rakuyaji - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Then there is a smallish (1 meter) Eleven-faced Kannon in the natabori style one finds so often in northern Japan, but only seldom in the Kansai area. We also meet an amiable Jizo who can be dated exactly to 1187. These statues were not all originally from Rakuyaji, but have been gathered from other temples in the wider area that somewhere along their path through history were destroyed by fire or war. Thus the statues of seven temples have been assembled here in Rakuyaji, where they find a warm home.

What strikes us most at Rakuyaji, more than its beautiful statues, is the peace it exudes. Perhaps this peace is not only the serenity of a temple: it is the whole countryside here, that is calm and tranquil. Nothing disturbs its beauty: there are no billboards shouting advertisements at us, the land is virgin and untouched.

“I hope it remains like this,” the old priest sighs, “it is good to live here.”

We agree. The old oaks are gone, but the hasty new world has not arrived yet. We vow we will come back to this Oak Field Temple.

Address: Rakuya, Koka-machi, Koka City, Shiga Pref.
Tel: 0748-88-3890
Access: 15 min by bus or taxi from Koka St on the Jr Kusatsu line; or 35 min on foot from Aburai St on the same line.
Special Opening (of the statues): Jan 1-3; Feb 27-29; Aug. 9; as well as April 18-2nd Sun in May (Spring Opening); Oct 18-2nd Sun in Nov (Autumn Opening)
Note: Combine with a visit to Daichiji and its wonderful garden, near Mikumo St on the same (Kusatsu) line.