88 Temple Pilgrimage

88 Temple Pilgrimage banner.jpg

For a full list of itineraries, please visit our Halal Food and Travel website.

The 88 Temple Pilgrimage (八十八ヶ所巡り hachijūhakkasho-meguri) is Japan's most famous pilgrimage route, a 1,200-km loop around the island of Shikoku.

Introduction

MotoyamaJi,Kagawa-01 - |upright=1.5||Statue of 'Kōbō Daishi(Kūkai)in Motoyamaji temple(No.70), Kagawa.

Many of the temples are said to have been founded or restored by the revered monk and scholar Kūkai (空海), better known by his posthumous title Kōbō Daishi (弘法大師). Among his many achievements, he is said to have created the kana syllabary, brought the tantric teachings of Esoteric Buddhism from China, developed it into the uniquely Japanese Shingon sect and founded Shingon's headquarters on Mount Koya near Osaka. While most modern-day pilgrims (an estimated 100,000 yearly) travel by tour bus, a small minority still set out the old-fashioned way on foot, a journey which takes about six weeks to complete. Pilgrims, known as o-henro-san (お遍路さん), can be spotted in the temples and roadsides of Shikoku clad in a white jacket emblazoned with the characters Dōgyō Ninin (同行二人), meaning "two traveling together"—the other traveler being the spirit of Kobo Daishi. Locals will be excited to see someone making the journey on foot and priests will be relieved that you are not showing up with 100 of your close friends.

Make sure that your Japanese is good enough to communicate your feelings to both groups!

Prepare

Iwamotoji PilgrimGirl - Pilgrim traveling on foot, Kubokawa

Completing the course the traditional way on foot is a serious undertaking that demands several weeks. Good physical fitness and stamina are required to endure the stress of constant walking up and down the hills of Shikoku, in the burning sun and the pouring rain. Many pilgrims choose to dress up in traditional attire:

• byakue – the white coat of a pilgrim
• wagesa – scarf worn around the neck, purple, to indicate that you are on a religious pilgrimage
• sugegasa – conical straw hat
• kongōtsue – walking stick and the one indispensable sign that identifies you as a pilgrim In addition, most pilgrims carry a book called nōkyōchō or shuincho, to collect a red ink stamp (shu-in) by each temple you visit. All of these items can be purchased -in a formal sense- at Mount Koya or at Ryozenji and the first temple. Many pilgrims who begin the pilgrimage on foot do not finish it. It is a common to hear of people giving up in Kochi, traditionally known as "devil's land" because of its hot temperature, intense rain and infrequent contact with civilization. (This means you must either camp, sleep in a rest stop or precisely time your journey to only hit towns and be willing to pay up for a hotel room.)

Blog

• Jasbir Sandhu, y.com/ 「四国八十八ヶ所巡り」]   (2011/2015) A walking pilgrim from India.
• Kat Davis,  "Followingthearrows"  (2023) A walking pilgrim from Australia.
• 澤村よし,   "A pilgrimage trail to 88 temples in Shikoku, Japan"] Useful information for pilgrimage, built by (Japanese).
• Cheng Chen-Hsin, " Cycling in Shikoku Henro"] (2023) A cycling pilgrim from Taiwan, Province of China.

Travel to 88 Temple Pilgrimage

It is traditional to prepare by visiting Mount Koya, but the route itself starts at Ryōzenji, near Tokushima and you have to return here in order to complete your pilgrimage. It is not necessary to start from temple #1 as long as you visit them all, but thit is by far the most popular starting point for pilgrims from outside Shikoku, because it is also the closest to people coming from Mt. Koya.　 The temples are visited in clockwise order, although this too, is just a convention—in training, as all signs are oriented for pilgrims going clockwise, it's easier to get lost if you try to go against the flow.

Go

Shikoku Pilgrimage Map01 - Shikoku Pilgrimage all 88 temples map

Most pilgrims walking on foot average around 25 km daily and complete the trip in five to seven weeks. The canonical list of temples is as follows: