The Karukayado hall, Koyasan, Japan Editorial Photo

In the traditional Sekkyo-bushi recitation, the Joruri drama, and Noh’s Yokyoku song, there is a story called The Karukaya. Once upon a time a little boy named Ishidomaru came to Koyasan from a far away province in order to meet his father, who had renounced the world, and on his way, by chance he met a priest seeking truth. This priest was in fact his father, Karukaya Doshin, whom Isidomaru was yearning to see. However, the priest told Ishidomaru that his father was not yet in this world. At the same time as this encounter, Ishidomaru’s mother, who had stayed at an inn located at the foot of Mont Koya because of the precepts prohibiting women from entering, had breathed her last too. The Karukayado hall is preserved to the present-day as the hermitage where this father and son practiced asceticism together, and the paintings of their whole life story can be seen there.