is the name of a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ...

and folk religion pilgrimage destination in the center of remote

Shimokita Peninsula is the remote northeastern cape of the Japanese island of Honshū, stretching out towards Hokkaidō. Overview It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, Tsugaru Strait to the north and Mutsu Bay to the west and south. Shaped like an axe ...

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

, in the northern

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...

of northern

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The temple is located in the

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

of an active

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

and is believed in Japanese mythology to be one of the gates to the underworld.

Etymology

The mountain was once called Usoriyama by the

Ainu people The Ainu are the indigenous people of the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, including Hokkaido Island, Northeast Honshu Island, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Khabarovsk Krai, before the arrival of the Y ...

, but was gradually changed by the Japanese to Osore, meaning "dread", which may be a statement to the sites of enshrined dead in the area.

Mount Osore volcano

The mountain is one peak of the , a series of eight

somma volcano A somma volcano (also known as a sommian) is a volcano, volcanic caldera that has been partially filled by a new central volcanic cone, cone. The name comes from Mount Somma, a stratovolcano in southern Italy with a summit caldera in which the ...

s ranging from east to west in the centre of Shimokita Peninsula. Mount Osore has a height of . Although Mount Osore last erupted over 10,000 years ago, the area has many fumaroles emitting steam and volcanic gases (especially

sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...

), indicating that it is still an active volcano.

Lake Usori is a volcanic crater lake in northern Honshū island, Japan. It is also referred to as . Located in the Shimokita Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture, it is within the borders of the city of Mutsu and Shimokita Hanto Quasi-National Park. Lake Us ...

is a

caldera lake A volcanic crater lake is a lake in a crater that was formed by explosive activity or a collapse during a volcanic eruption. Formation Lakes in calderas fill large craters formed by the collapse of a volcano during an eruption. Lakes in maars ...

at the center of Mount Osore, with highly acidic waters. During the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

deposits in the area were exploited, partly to meet the demand for

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...

production by the growing Japanese military; however the deposits were not economical to mine due to the remoteness of the site and the increasing availability of sulphur as a byproduct of petroleum refining.

Bodai-ji temple and pilgrimage location

The mountain is the location of a Sōtō Zen Buddhist temple, , which claims to have been founded in 862 AD by the famed monk Ennin, with Jizō Bosatsu as its main image. The temple was abandoned in 1457 and restored back to use in 1530. In popular folk religion, the otherworldly setting of Mount Osore, with its charred landscape of blasted rocks filled with bubbling pits noted for unearthly hues and noxious fumes came to be one of several places in Japan identified to be an entrance to the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

. A small brook running to the neighboring

was equated to the

Sanzu River The is a mythological river in Japanese Buddhist tradition similar to the Hindu concept of the Vaitarna and Greek concept of the Styx. Before reaching the afterlife, the souls of the deceased must cross the river by one of three crossing points ...

, a river that deceased souls need to cross on their way to the afterlife. A unique feature of Bodai-ji is the presence of mediums known as ''

itako , also known as or , are blind women who train to become spiritual mediums in Japan. Training involves severe ascetic practices, after which the woman is said to be able to communicate with Japanese Shinto spirits, ''kami'', and the spirits o ...

'' who claim to summon the souls of the dead and deliver messages in their voices. These mediums were traditionally blind and had to receive extensive spiritual training and purification rituals; however, in modern times, their number has dwindled and not all are blind. The temple has a twice-yearly ''Itako Taisai'' festival held in summer and autumn. The temple also maintains a hot spring resort for use by pilgrims and tourists.

In modern culture

The work of contemporary artist

Nara Yoshitomo is a Japanese artist. He lives and works in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, though his artwork has been exhibited worldwide. Nara has had nearly 40 solo exhibitions since 1984. His art work has been housed at the MoMA and the Los Angeles Coun ...

, who is a native of Aomori Prefecture, is believed to be influenced, at least subconsciously, by Mount Osore (Ivy, 2010). For instance, his piece entitled “Not Everything But/ Green House” depicts a small female child standing over a pile of discarded dolls of varying characteristics and eras much like those observed at Mount Osore. As part of a collection of ''fictional

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

'', artist Takeshi Yamada created the Oh-dokuro-dake (or “skull mushroom”) and the story surrounding their presence on Mount Osore for his "center for medical mycology" art project.

Gallery

Image:Osorezan Aomori 01.jpg, Sōmon gate of Bodai-ji Image:Sanmon Gate of Bodai-ji Temple at Mount Osore.jpg, Sammon gate of Bodai-ji Image:Osorezan.jpg, Lake Usori Image:OsorezanEffigy.jpg, Effigy of a child

Notes

References

* Fackler, M. (2009, August 20). As Japan's mediums die, ancient tradition fades. The New York Times, p. 8, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com * Global Volcanism Program. (n.d.). Osore-yama. Retrieved from http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0803-29= * Ivy, M. (2010). The art of cute little things: Nara Yoshitomo's parapolitics. Mechademia, 5(1), 3-29. doi:10.1353/mec.2010.0020 * Wonderland Japan WAttention. (n.d.). Mt. Osore. Retrieved from https://www.webcitation.org/6Bp5xzjwO?url=http://www.wattention.com/archives/mt-osore * Yamada, T. (2011, June). Skull mushroom. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/museumofworldwonders2/5725108088

External links

Official home page of Bodai-ji
{{Authority control Osore Mediumship Soto temples Osore Osore Mutsu, Aomori Tourist attractions in Aomori Prefecture Buddhist temples in Aomori Prefecture