Early Morning Walk along Okuno-in Forest Path | Koyasan, Japan

Any quiet early morning walk on the path through Okuno-in, the resting place for many of Japan's great leaders in a quiet cedar forest atop Mt. Koya. I started at dawn in the small mountaintop village of Koyasan. It is a popular place for tourists interested in Japanese Buddhist history and there are also visitors who stay overnight at accommodations run by monks, originally intended for those walking the Koyasan pilgrimage route. At this early hour the streets were quiet, I passed one monk and a cat on the way to Ichinohashi, the bridge at that leads into the forest.

Early May, 2025

Koyasan is part of the Kumano Kodo, an ancient pilgrimage route in southern Kansai. I have walked a few sections of the route, and plan to walk more in the future.