Another big thing staying in a Shukubo is to attend the Morning Service of Zenkoji, called Oasaji
It is held all year round at the time of the sunrise.
Previous day during check in the lady asked me if I wanted to join the Japanese group or English group (we did the check-in in Japanese)
well thank you very much but you have more faith in my language abilities than myself!
As it turned out the other guests of the night was one Japanese lady and a group of 4 foreigners (I didn't find out where they came from till later).
So the five of us gathered at the entrance of Yakuo-in at 5:20am sharp to greet our volunteer guide (forgot his name!).
We were told a bit of the history of Zenkoji and then led to the blessing ceremony. Basically you line up, kneel down and lower your head. Then you would receive Buddhist rosary on your head by the chief priest or priestess. This ceremony happens twice a day before and after the morning service - when the chief priest /priestess is on the way to and from the morning service.
Here's the chief priest under the red umbrella. I had just received the blessing.
Then we walked into the inner chamber of the main hall where it's the closest to the main altar. Anyone can come and attend the morning service. Only the inner chamber requires a ticket, 600 Yen I think.
The Buddhist statue is hidden inside the main altar but NEVER shown to anybody, as I understood.
Every 7 years a copy of it is shown to the public for a few weeks but not the real statue - all explained by our guide, one lady was particularly bothered by this and kept asking where's the real thing, our guide couldn't quite get the question and it was a big hoo ha
Photos not allowed so all below are from Zenkoji website.
This is the monks do the thing...mainly just chanting...
Anyhow, after the morning service (about 30 mins) we were led to a underground passage - you are supposed to walk in complete darkness to search for the "key to paradise" which is attached to the wall right below the statue, touching it would bring salvation.
Yeah I do not recommend this
reason should be obvious!
This is the entrance to that underground thing
As we emerged from darkness the whole thing was finished. Phew!
Note:
There are two Buddhist sects in charge of the running of Zenkoji including all the Shukubos.
Each has its own service running one after the other.
So depending on which one your shukubo belongs to, that's the service you will attend.
And here's a better picture of the Rosary blessing.
