World and Lore / Kyoto mystery

Don't Look Back

The Jusan Mairi, or "thirteenth-year ceremony," is a rite held at the Horin-ji Temple in which boys and girls who have reached the age of thirteen must pay their respects to the wise and virtuous bodhisattva known as Kokuzo Bosatsu. After the ritual is over, and the young boys and girls are making their way home over the Togetsu-kyo Bridge, it is strictly forbidden for them to so much as glance back at the temple, for to do so is deemed akin to rejecting the wisdom and fortune gifted them by the great bodhisattva.