Akame 48 Waterfalls　赤目48滝

April 6^th. 2024

Yoshinoyama mistake

Michi no eki Kudoyama gave us an unexpectedly restful night being much less busy than anticipated.

We rise earlier than usual and are soon on the way to Yoshinoyama to visit the temple and view its abundance of cherry blossom. We leave early as we expect it to be very busy, Sakura season, Saturday, and the last weekend of spring break.

As we get closer still well before 9am. We hit significant traffic. This gets worse and worse, but we persevere as we were expecting the place to be busy. In the end, sitting in almost motionless traffic, on a steep incline watching the hoards detrain at Yoshino station I have had enough, execute a U-turn and escape. The moral of this story is you can’t escape the crowd as the crowd is trying to do the same thing.

Akame 48 Waterfalls

We head off for Akame gorge to walk a little and view some of the 48 waterfalls. Waterfalls are not really my thing and find it hard to take interesting pictures, but I do like a rocky torrent. In this, the Akame Gorge does not disappoint. It has fast flowing white water, abundant boulders, towering crags adorned with trees, creepers, ferns, moss and lots of wildflowers.

To view all the falls along the gorge, requires a serious hike and I am not capable of such exertion at present. Nevertheless, we walk perhaps a little over a third of the way. The going is mostly easy along a rough, concrete path with periodic steep, rocky steps. The falls vary in character, are not great in height but short and powerful plunging into dark green pools. The gorge sides are high and sheer in places.

There is a statue of a cow with conspicuous red eyes at one point on the path. This is because the famous monk or religious ascetic En no gyoja, founder of the Shugendo set, encountered Fudo Osama/Fudoumyoo the Buddhist deity (always depicted wreathed in fire and holding a sword) who unusually was riding a cow with red eyes. So, the area is known as Akame or red eyes.
My personal theory is more prosaic and based in fact. I suspect the name arises from the abundance of Sugi trees. These are the cause of Kafunsho (hay fever) an affliction suffered by 50% or so of the population. Certainly, my eyes were red and inflamed after walking this gorge.

Enjyuin temple　延寿院

Next, we take a look at a small temple (Enjyuin) nearby that houses one of the most important Fudo Sama images in Japan. This is just one of many similar claims. The temple proved interesting for 3 reasons – the piano, the monk, and the cherry tree.

First the piano. This is an electronic player piano playing a repertoire all by itself right in front of the small hall containing the Fudo Sama image carefully concealed in a box. Most unusual.

The monk appears and proceeds to explain, at length, how the surrounding mountains are like the petals of the lotus, the waterfalls are stairways to heaven, how ninja developed, how he likes Aston Martins and how the ancient cherry tree has various siblings. He apologized many times for talking at length. D. says his information was very interesting though, I confess, I could not follow most of it.

To escape the weekend traffic, we drive into the mountains to michi no eki Yoshino-ji Kurotaki. This was busy when we arrived but once the Yamazaki shop closed it became very quiet. There are perhaps 7 or 8 overnighters. The toilets are remarkably good for a michi no eki in a remote mountain location.
Lots of cats.