Japan diaries 2: The karate pilgrimage

While staying in Asakusa our plans were mostly centered around visiting the shrine and grave of Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of the Kyokushinkaikan karate school. Later on we went to the mountains of Mitsumine, where the same founder had held many training camps close to tournaments, a mountain peak with much spiritual energy.

A bit about Sosai Masutatsu Oyama
Curiously, he was originally from Korea, but emigrated to Japan as a young man to join the airforce, but was rejected due to him being a foreigner. Instead he took up a life of martial arts, and developed his own branch of Karate, derived mainly from Shotokan Karate, which he called Kyokushinkaikan — meaning something along the lines of “the school for the path to the true meaning”. During his career he wrestled bulls and lived as a hermit in the mountains, mostly Mt. Minobou. A recurring karate tournament in his honour is also held called Mas Oyama Memorial Tournament. He lies buried in Tokyo along generals of legend and important politicians.

Visiting the grave
From Asakusa, we had to take three different metro trains in order to get to the temple where he was buried, a temple called Gokukuji. The Tokyo metro system is very intuitive and the staff was very helpful with pointing out our route, so it went smoothly. The temple was beautiful, and I was positively surprised to see young guys of my age walking around in traditional kimono talking to their casual-clad friends — walking around at a burial ground in denmark dressed in classic danish clothes ala folkdance would make people, if not laugh, then at least exchange looks.

We dressed up in our karate clothes and paid a visit to Masutatsu Oyama’s grave, where we paid our respects and took pictures together with the master.

The atmosphere around the grave was tense and authentic, it really was an experience I’m going to relish for a long time.

Honbu
Honbu is the name of the “main dojo”, headquarter training facility, of the international Kyokushin karate school. There are two Honbu now, because of a legal dispute after the death of Masutatsu Oyama, so they’re called “old” and “new” Honbu.

We paid both honbu a visit and took some photos to mark the occasion — a requirement of our karate pilgrimage.

Kawaguchiko
After a brief stay for a few days in Tokyo Asakusa, we traveled with JR down to a town called Kawaguchiko with a nice view to Mt. Fuji, in Japanese called Fuji-san. It was a rather small town, mostly serving as a hub for travelers to the mountains, but also carrying it’s own little isolated community and a number of good and not so good restaurants. We were lodged in a hotel called Kawaguchiko Station Inn, just in front of Kawaguchiko station, thusly named. Fun fact: When you step out of the train you immediately feel like you’ve entered a city in a Pokemon gameboy game due to the atmosphere and the peculiar, loud 8bit music tune coming from the streetlights to signal for blind people. This music is audible from the hotel rooms from 8am to 10pm, so it also works as a makeshift way to keep track of getting up and getting to bed.

The hotel itself was very nice, with authentic japanese style rooms, Asakusa Smile being bunkbeds, and with free tea(for those so inclined), futon roll beds on the floor and hot spring “onsen” bath, which was very nice. The atmosphere on the hotel was incredible, but the breakfast was a letdown — a piece of airy half-exisistant quasi-bread with butter, for the price of 500 yen a piece, money that could easily buy you breakfast for two persons for two days in an expensive japanese supermarket.

Mt. Mitsumine
Following in the footsteps of our karate master Sosai Masutatsu Oyama we hired a tourist bus to take the group to Mt. Mitsumine, a lush forest mountain with a lot of temples and shrines. The mountain was one of Oyamas favourites, and he often went there for training camps. The mountain was so important to him, and he important to it, that he posthumously has been given a memorial shrine larger than his very grave on top of it — so of course we needed to go there.

The mountain is incredibly beautiful, but on the way up my camera got damaged from the heavy rain, so I have no pictures myself of the summit itself, but once I get them from the others I will edit them into this post.

As mentioned before, there was incredibly heavy rain up there, so we were suited up and training on top of the mountain in the beautiful gardens, covered in mud, our kiais echoing all the way down the mountain sides. It was an incredibly intense experience that I will remember fondly for the rest of my life.

Mt. Fuji
After some rest in the onsen and the hotel room we were gearing up and setting out for the next objective: Fuji-san, the tallest mountain in Japan and an active volcano, it’s snowy peak taunting us from above.

We drove with bus up to the mountain, met up with our guides and started walking up the mountainside at nightfall, so that we’d reach the top at dawn to witness the sunrise, one of the most legendary sunrises in the world. The trek upwards was much more steep than anticipated and was a true test of endurance, altitude sickness and exhaustion taking it’s toll on all participants. For hours we climbed, making brief stops at the various checkpoints before pushing onwards towards the summit and the sunrise, leg pains and thundering headaches pounding through us like a hailstorm. We were lucky that the weather was solid and it didn’t rain at all — rain on that mountain is said to be fatally dangerous — but two hundred meters from the top, the most steep and tough 200 meters of them all, I had to stop because my condition was considered dangerous by the guides — I’d collapse if I continued from headpains due to altitude sickness, so I had to return to the nearest checkpoint and wait for the group. It was alright though, as I got to witness the sunrise from there as well, and it was beautiful. The others later told me that they were too exhausted and in too much pain to fully appreciate their victory over the ancient volcano, but we all agreed that once we got rid of our sickness and cold and pains, we would have a great experience to look back on.

I, for one, intend to one day return to that mountain and reach the top at any price. But not today. Not tomorrow. Sure as hell not anytime soon. But someday, Fuji-san, someday!

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