{Inter} Cultural Japan

On the way to Kamakura from Tokyo, the train passes Ofuna, a station that grafts itself into memory because of the giant, white face of the Kannon that looks down upon the railroad from behind the hill. The modern statue (vintage 1960) had never impressed me as more than just a friendly face and I used to ride on to more thrilling destinations. Today for the first time I alight at Ofuna, not for the Kannon, but to see the dark and moist underground world of the Buddhist caves of Taya.

[Ofuna Kannon]

The caves are guarded by a small and unobtrusive temple, Josenji, where I receive a pamphlet and a candle for my romantic cave tour. I step through the gateway of the sandstone hill, light my candle at a lamp near the entrance, and start spelunking. The tunnel is spacious, providing enough room for me to stand upright. In the pamphlet I read that the total length of the tunnel is one and a half kilometers, of which 400 meters are open to visitors. The tunnel leads to various chambers and climbs to different levels in the rock: the whole complex is three stories high. In many places, the walls and ceiling of the tunnel are decorated with Buddhist reliefs; the larger chambers are completely covered with these artistic impressions.

It is amazing that these caves were dug our by hand, even though it happened over the course of several centuries. The process apparently began in the 12th century and the first caves may have been used as storerooms for weapons. Soon after that, Shingon Buddhism annexed the caves for religious purposes. For the next 500 years, until 1720, Buddhist monks diligently dug out the tunnels with chisels and sometimes their bare hands, gradually extending the system to the present size. The intricate network is even supplied with ventilation shafts and a drainage system. Walking through the underworld, inspecting the Buddha reliefs in the insecure light of our candles, I wonder at the rationale behind this great religious effort. Of course, the chambers into which the tunnel leads served as places for worship and meditation. The quietness and darkness of the caves was conducive to zazen. For days and weeks on end monks stayed in this underground world to fast and practice austerities.

In my imagination, I hear ancient prayers and chants echoing through the corridors. But when I halt my footsteps, I realize how unearthly quiet it is under the earth. Water drips off the shiny, wet walls. The cold makes me shiver. Led by my tiny light, I follow the path up and down, along fantastic animals and gods cut out in the walls. Angry images of Fudo Myo-o grimace at me in the candle light.

On my round through the cave system, I count seventeen domed exercise cells. The main chamber centers on a monument to Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism. At some places, ‘windows’ shaped like a sun and a moon have been playfully cut out in the floor and ceiling between the different levels.

[Entrance of the Taya caves]

At the Source
After a while, I notice I am walking in the direction of the sound of flowing water, louder than the moisture dripping from the walls. The sound grows stronger, as if I am approaching an underground river, a Styx at the border between our world and that of the dead.

I find an underground spring, bubbling up like a fountain, then flowing out into a narrow canal alongside the tunnel wall. My imagination is justified when I see that the wall above the canal is covered with images of people crossing a stream to the netherworld.

I, on the contrary, pass back into this world. My hands covered with molten wax that fell from the candle, I step back into the sunlight, impressed, but also relieved that my dark passage is over.

Countless believers day after day must have entered the dark caves and worked on the stone reliefs by the flickering light of candles and torches. Buddhism went underground to find solitude for meditation, and meditation in the dark tunnels in its turn formed the inspiration for this exceptional flowering of piety.

Access: Take a bus from Ofuna Station on the JR Tokaido and Yokosuka Lines in the direction of the Totsuka Bus Center. Get off after about 6 min. at Dokutsu-mae. Josenji is behind the stop, next to a spa building. The caves are to the right behind the temple.
Hours. 9:00-16:30.
Candle included.