Cultural Assets－Sutra Mounds

Sutra mound #1. Tomogashima, which crops up in Japanese mythology, is the collective name for a group of four islands: Jinoshima, Torajima, Kamijima, and Okinoshima. En no Gyoja established five training sites on Tomogashima. Johon on Torajima is the starting point of the 28-station Katsuragi Shugen trail. In a fissure of stone measuring 10 meters deep and 50 cm wide is the sutra mound—a stone monument engraved with kanji saying it’s the first chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Ancient illustrated guidebooks like the Kii no Kuni Meisho Zu-e (compiled in the early to mid 19th century) described visiting this site as tainaikuguri (“passing through a womb”)—a practice symbolizing rebirth. Even today Shugendo believers come from far and wide to visit this place.