On the island of Shikoku all the charm of ancient Japan is preserved intact. Therefore, not only Buddhist pilgrims in conical hats, but also tourists walk along the road that leads across the island.
The henro pilgrimage route is more than 1,200 years old. It passes through 88 temples, making a circle around the island of Shikoku. The route is 1,130 km long and takes 40 days to walk. During this long walk you can see 88 ancient Buddhist temples with the most beautiful Japanese gardens.
It is true that the travel time can be reduced if you go all or partially by bus, train or car, although it would be a violation of the essence of the ancient pilgrimage, whose task is to forget about family, work and other components of worldly life for 40 days. After all, the ultimate goal of the pilgrimage is to gain an understanding of oneself and to redefine one’s life.
Each of the Shikoku temples has its own attractions. For example, Konomineji is known for its healing water, and Umpanji has a seat in the shape of an eggplant.
The Shikoku henro pilgrimage route passes through 88 temples on the island of Shikoku, located in southern Japan. It attracts not only devout Buddhists, but also many young people looking to improve their health and visit “places of strength. Recently, an increasing number of tourists from abroad. For the Japanese, the route is not only a religious phenomenon, but also an important part of their cultural heritage, and there are increasing proposals to include the route in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The route begins at Ryojenji, the first temple on the route in Tokushima Prefecture, passes through Kochi and Ehime Prefectures, and ends at the eighty-eighth temple, Ookuboji, in Kagawa Prefecture. The shortest route is 1,130 km long and takes 40 days on foot or 10 days by bus or train.
Japan has long worshipped a myriad of deities (yayorozu no kami), and there are many different ways of religious practice. Worship of the forces of nature, ancestor worship, Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, and shugendo – with all the variety of religious life in Japan, the pilgrimage to the 88 Shikoku temples is one of the most famous, along with pilgrimages to Ise Shrine or Kumano Shrines.
For all its importance, not everything is known about the origins of this route. According to one version, it was started by the monk Kukai (774-835), a well-known cultural figure who brought the teachings of the Shingon school of Buddhism from China and spread Buddhism in Japan. There is also a legend as if Emon Saburo, a rich man who lived near the present 51st temple, Ishiteji, refused an offering to Kukai and then caught up with him all over Shikoku Island to make his apologies, and this was the beginning of such a pilgrimage.
In the 17th century, pilgrimage through Shikoku was quite popular. In 1689, the monk Yuben Shinnen compiled his Guide to Shikoku henro (Shikoku henro mitishirube), in which he detailed 88 Shikoku temples, making him known as the “father of Shikoku henro,” and his book was a bestseller for a long time, until the Meiji period (1868-1912).
Later Taneda Santoka (1882-1940), known as the “travel poet,” likened human life to a pilgrimage through Shikoku, and he himself visited all the temples on the route twice.
One of the first foreigners to walk this route was the American anthropologist Frederick Starr (1858-1933), a professor at the University of Chicago, who made this pilgrimage in 1921, and most recently, in November 2013, Spanish Ambassador to Japan Miguel Navarro visited this route in Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture as part of the commemoration of 400 years of relations between Spain and Japan. Spain, by the way, has its own ancient pilgrim road, the Way of Saint James to the tomb of the apostle in the city of Santiago de Compostela, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.