The Shikoku Henro is Japan’s oldest pilgrim trail – a 1,500km trek that takes devotees to 88 temples. Joanna Hunter joins the faithful
The man walking up ahead wears a wide, conical straw hat. He is dressed in white, with a slash of black Kanji (Chinese) characters written vertically down his stooped back. In one hand he carries a long, wooden staff and with the other he drags a small, black wheelie-suitcase.
Suddenly, he stops, and makes a series of hand gestures culminating in the ringing of a bell. It is now inevitable that I will catch up with him, and when I do I am nervous, afraid that I will be seen to intrude. He fixes me with a filmy stare, his eyes milky with cataracts. And then he breaks into a grin. ‘I’m crazy!’ he declares. And, considering the solitary journey he has ahead – 1,450km of dragging that suitcase behind him – there are those who might think he has a point.
My new friend – who, at a guess, I would say is about 80 years old – and I are making our way to Ryozenji, the Temple of Vulture’s Peak. Originally founded in the 8th century, this is the first stop on Japan’s oldest and most famous pilgrimage, the Shikoku Henro.
South of Honshu and to the east of Kyushu, Shikoku is the fourth-largest island in Japan, and something of a backwater – the population hovers around the four million mark, compared to 35 million in the Greater Tokyo Area. Largely agricultural and notably poorer than Honshu, this is a place where the past 30 years might not have happened – the elusive ‘real Japan’, where you can still watch herons glide over the paddy fields nestled between traditional-style houses, and where foreign tourists are still the subject of open curiosity.
In Japan, at least, the island is famed for its beautiful hiking trails and udon noodles (thick and wheat-based), but most of all it is known for the Shikoku Henro, or 88-temple pilgrimage.
pilgrims
make their
way en
masse
Visitors to Japan may notice a certain ambivalence towards religion; it is not uncommon for a Japanese person to mark the important stages in life – birth, marriage and death – with a variety of Shinto, Buddhist and Christian ceremonies. Nonetheless, the 88-temple pilgrimage (88 is an auspicious number in Buddhism) still attracts 100,000-150,000 pilgrims a year. Some come on bus packages, some even hire a cab, but, to do it properly, you have to go by foot.
‘Allowing 50 to 70 days – walking along the coast, rivers, mountains and inland sea of the island for 1,500km – a pilgrim encounters strangers, local people, beggars, priests and unknown travellers,’ writes Bishop Taisen Miyata of the experience in his rather literally entitled book A Henro Pilgrim’s Guide to the 88 Temples of Shikoku Island, Japan. ‘The local inhabitants gaze at us as strangers; sometimes they treat us harshly. Occasionally they welcome us with full hospitality. Through such various experiences the Henro [pilgrim] cultivates his inner character and discovers the joy of living by overcoming his inner struggles.’
Known as ‘the walk of life’ the pilgrimage is supposed to lead believers in the steps of Kukai, or Kobo Daishi, Japan’s most famous monk.
Born in Shikoku in 774 AD, Kobo Daishi is credited not only with introducing Esoteric Buddhism to Japan and founding the unique Shingon sect, but also
with inventing the Japanese syllabic writing system, kana. The Chinese characters written down the pilgrims’ backs read Doygo Ninin, or ‘two travelling together’, and declare Kobo Daishi’s presence, as does the 1.5m-long stick, symbolically the most important part of the pilgrim’s uniform. ticklers will start their journey by preparing at Mount Koya, or Koya-san, the religious community that Kobo Daishi founded near Osaka, before heading on to Shikoku. Once on the island it does not really matter where you start – as long as you go to all 88 of the temples (there are a further 20 or so optional extras if you feel like it, too). Most popular, though, is to begin at the beginning; assuming you do so you are also expected to return to Ryozenji at the end to complete the full circle; only then will the pilgrim be released from the cycle of reincarnation.
Although founded in the 8th century, the pilgrimage really became popular in the 14th century. These days, most visitors, tend to dip in and out – after all, you can do the whole thing in six days by car – choosing temples either for spiritual promise (deities are believed to help variously with business, education, money, health, love, and the warding off of evil spirits, among other things) or historic value, such as Kompira-san, Shikoku’s oldest and most popular temple, which also, conveniently enough, boasts fantastic views – the only drawback being the 1,000-odd steps you have to climb to see them. Others are revered for the difficulty in getting to them – in particular numbers 12, 21 and 22. Modern infrastructure has made the walk easier, but it is not unknown for pilgrims to die on the trail.
Statues
such as this are
a feature of the
Shikoku
temples
You would think that doing it once would be enough, but a number of pilgrims seem to have an urge to come back again and again.
‘I’ve been 18 times,’ my friend at Ryozenji tells me, who – in the off-season period – is also the only traditional pilgrim I meet during my time on the island. ‘I spend two months going around and around and around…’ Sadly that was all I was to learn – profoundly deaf, he was more interested in telling me that I should find myself a husband than sharing details of his enlightenment.
Of course, pilgrimages are undergone for a variety of reasons. A recent example was that of Kan Naoto, former leader of Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) who completed the pilgrimage as a penance after resigning in disgrace in 2004.
Kan was also tapping into a fertile source of patriotism: ‘It’s important for Japanese people,’ Yamada-san, a stout, middle-aged woman from Gifu prefecture who was visiting Kompira-san told me. ‘I’d like to do it … but I’m very busy,’ she added later.
Map: Joe Stevenson;
Corbis; Alamy; Photolibrary.com
Perhaps more surprising, at a time when Japan’s youth seem more focused on Louis Vuitton than spirituality, is the increase in the number of young people, from teenagers upwards, completing the temple walk.
‘These days I see lots of young people who are actually walking – trying to go through the whole process,’ says Kobayashi-san, who has lived in Kotohira, home to Kompira-san, all her life.
‘I get the feeling that they are really searching for something inside of them. They’re really young – and they’re walking!’ she says.
Suzuki-san, a pilgrim I meet at a monastery on Koya-san before he embarked on his second tour of Shikoku, adds: ‘For me, the pilgrimage is a chance to escape modern life and think about the things that are really important. It makes you realise how small your problems really are.’
In his mid-sixties, Suzuki-san had begun his journey by walking from Nagoya, over an hour away by bullet train on Honshu. His feet were already blistered and bleeding.
‘I get up at 3am to bandage and prepare them for the journey,’ he said, waving aside my expressions of admiration and amazement with embarrassment. ‘Really,’ he said. ‘It’s not wonderful at all.’
There are few who would agree with him. For no matter how quickly the coach-loads of pilgrims might be driven round – wearing the traditional white coat over their jeans – there is always going to be something special about the achievement of completing the 88-temple pilgrimage on foot.
As Kobayashi-san tells me: ‘It’s better for you to walk and then you are closer to how people did it in the past. You get to experience the real feeling from the past. These days people take a car or a bus, they go everywhere really quickly. If you can go to all 88 spots in a few days then you can feel that you have done the pilgrimage but that’s not the real way to do it.
‘In the past people had a reason to do it, inside them. The whole journey was part of the pilgrimage. If you choose the old fashioned way then you’ll discover things within yourself that you never could on a bus.’
WHEN AND WHERE
The pilgrimage starts
officially at Koya-san on
Honshu before leading to
the 88 marked (and other
unmarked) temples on
Shikoku. Peak season is April
to October.
Drive the pilgrim route
Should you decide not to
walk, you can hire a car. Most
major companies operate
here. You will need an international
driving permit.
www.discover-japan.info/japan_car_
rental.htm
What to eat
All the old favourites are on
offer – sushi, sashimi, etc – but
Shikoku is particularly famed for
its udon noodles.
Where to stay
Many, but not all, temples
offer basic traditional accommodation.
Another option is
to stay in a Japanese ryokan
(inn) or minshuku (B&B)
www.japaneseguesthouses.com
Read all about it
A Henro Pilgrim’s Guide to
the 88 Temples of Shikoku
Island, Japan by Bishop
Taisen Miyata describes each
temple and also gives details
of accommodation.
www.koyasanbetsuin.org
Useful links
www.shikokuhenrotrail.com
For general information on
Japan visit:
www.japantravelinfo.com
HOW TO GET THERE
ANA and JAL both provide
regular flights to Japan.
www.ana.co.jp/eng/
www.uk.jal.com
