A meizanologist's diary (98)

12 March: although we're climbing nothing higher than the steep stone steps of a local shrine this afternoon, the Hyakumeizan are never far away. 

With an honoured guest in town – some decades ago, we skied Japan's Haute Route together – we pay a visit to the shrine dedicated to the goddess who taught the local paper-makers their craft. 

It turns out that the shrine’s inner sanctuary (“oku no in”) comprises the mountain under which it nestles – and that the mountain was opened in the year 719 by none other than Monk Taichō, two years after he’d made the first recorded ascent of Hakusan. 

The shrine’s office is deserted at this late hour, but somebody has left a book lying on its counter. Not only does our paper-making shrine grace the cover, but it features among the worthiest shrines in all Japan - there are, apparently, one hundred of them. Now wherever did the book’s authors get that idea, I wonder…