We find hell and paradise both at Aomori’s Osorezan . If you keep heading north as far as you can on Japan’s main island of Hokkaido, you’ll come to Aomori Prefecture , and if you keep heading north as far as you can in Aomori, you’ll eventually arrive at the Shimokita Peninsula . Shimokita isn’t just the end of the line in a geographic sense, though, but in a figurative, spiritual one too, as the peninsula is where you’ll find Osorezan , or Mt.
Osore . Osore is the Japanese word for “fear” or “terror,” and Osorezan, with its desolate rocky terrain and sulfuric gas seeping out from below ground, is felt to bear more than a passing resemblance to Buddhist descriptions of hell and the afterlife . Osorezan is considered one of the three most sacred places in Japan as a gathering place for spirits of the dead, and on her recent travels in northern Japan, our Japanese-language reporter Saya Togashi decided to make her first visit.
As you might expect for someplace that’s thought of as a meeting point between our world and the afterlife, Osorezan is a bit out of the way. The closest train stop is Shimokita Station on the Ominato Line, and from there it’s a 45-minute drive or bus ride to Bodaiji , Osorezan’s temple. As she approached the temple, Saya began smelling sulfur and seeing jizo , roadside statues of monks meant to serve as guiding protectors of travelers and children, including those who died during childbirth.
As a famous temple, Bodaiji (which i.