Aomori, Japan Dec. 29 Sun 7:33AM
Mt. Osore
The Japanese name of Mt. Osore means "Mt. Fear," as the many bubbling springs in the area caused the locals to consider it an entrance to hell. To this day Mt Osore retains its otherworldly, slightly menacing ,atmosphere. However, it is not simply a place of darkness. Considered one of the three most sacred Buddhist sites in all of Japan, it is seen as a a place to connect with the dead. For this reason, small Jizo statues, which are thought to guide children safely to the underworld, dot the area, warmly clothed in their red robes.
For this reason, the mountain is a place of comfort as well as fear, or rather, or place for people to confront death in a comforting manner.
The silence of the landscape is interrupted by the sound of the area's many windmills, planted in the ground by grieving parents, as well as running water.
Like those twirling windmills, Mt. Osore is a place of both sadness and beauty, and is certainly worth visiting for the traveller interested in sacred Buddhist sites.
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