Three weeks into my trek, as I ascended a steep path towards Yokomine-ji, the 60th of 88 temples alongside the Shikoku pilgrimage, I discovered myself enveloped by an unforgiving fog. In an immediate, the colourful forest round me — principally pink cedar timber and fern bushes — light, leaving me in a world of muted grey. Able to make out solely the faintest shapes within the surrounded timber, I used to be satisfied that I’d stumbled into an eerie fairy story.
Quietly, within the distance, I started to listen to a refrain of small bells. Then, abruptly, the social gathering of unintended musicians got here into view: a big group of Japanese pilgrims who, coming towards me, all stopped neatly in line to let me stroll previous.
Within an hour, the fog had begun to carry. Within two, it was gone completely, changed by an equally unforgiving noon solar. In the newfound readability of daylight, I started to marvel: Had the courteous band of fellow pilgrims existed solely in my thoughts?
The pilgrimage on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s 4 essential islands, is a 750-mile route that hyperlinks 88 Buddhist temples, every of which claims a connection to Kukai, a celebrated monk — posthumously referred to as Kobo Daishi — who, after coming back from a visit to China within the ninth century, based one of many main colleges of Buddhism in Japan.
After Kukai’s loss of life in 835, wanderers started making pilgrimages to the websites on Shikoku that had been affiliated together with his life and work: his delivery and burial locations, the caves the place he meditated, the websites of varied non secular rites. Later, these websites had been linked, and the temples and shrines had been formally numbered.
As is true with many modern-day pilgrimages, the ranks of Shikoku pilgrims — as soon as completely practitioners of Shingon Buddhism, one of many main colleges of Buddhism in Japan — have grown to incorporate vacationers with a extra numerous array of motivations. And so the regular succession of monks, monks and trustworthy Buddhists has given method to younger individuals on journeys of self-discovery, older hikers having fun with their retirement and even international guests like me, who know little of the language and customs however are drawn by the journey of the trek, by Shikoku’s breathtaking views and by its chic classes on Japanese cultural heritage.
And the pilgrimage is less complicated now than it was once. Although pilgrims historically accomplished the route on foot, guided bus excursions now carry many guests to the websites. (The level for many individuals, in any case, is to go to all 88 temples, to not endure the hardships of a 750-mile hike.) Others choose to take personal vehicles, or to trek for a part of the way in which and drive (or be pushed) for the remainder.
Even for nonreligious trekkers, probably the most prized pilgrimage memento is a completely stamped nokyocho, or stamp guide. The books have devoted pages for all the temples, at every of which a clerk applies a number of stamps and some strokes of lovely calligraphy, made utilizing a standard brush.
One sizzling afternoon I met a middle-aged German couple who instructed me this was the fourth time they’d launched into the Shikoku pilgrimage. I requested why they selected to return as a substitute of attempting different treks elsewhere on this planet. During every pilgrimage, they mentioned, they found one thing completely totally different. And the meals is phenomenal, they added.
Another day, I walked for a couple of hours behind two Japanese males by way of rice fields in Kochi Prefecture, which traces the island’s concavely curved southern coast. I ended at a relaxation hut alongside the way in which and located the 2 males there, joined by two different males, all of them smoking and chatting.
In my restricted Japanese and their restricted English, they instructed me that they had been all from Shikoku. Two of them stroll two days annually, whereas the opposite two journey by automobile, ferrying the baggage and becoming a member of the walkers on the temples to worship collectively.
“Wait, how long will it take you to complete the whole pilgrimage then?” I requested.
One of the lads threw his arms into the air. “Who knows? Decades!” he mentioned, and so they all laughed.
Wherever I went on the island, a way of peacefulness appeared to comply with. In Shikoku, nearly with out fail, the individuals I encountered had been variety. They appeared content material. Though I’m not a religious individual, the silence and the vastness of the panorama — and the warmheartedness of the individuals I met — created an abiding aura of serenity.
One customized that distinguishes the individuals of Shikoku is the follow of osettai, the act of giving presents to the pilgrims. These presents come within the type of meals, drink, trinkets, automobile rides, meals, a spot to sleep — even, at occasions, small sums of cash. More than as soon as I noticed drivers cease in the midst of the street at hand out goodies from their automobile home windows.
One night, after having been granted free lodging from a temple (which occurred twice), I heard a knock on the door of my hut. A younger lady, a temple assistant who spoke no English, bowed and handed me a slip of paper: “Miss Marta, you are welcome to use the temple’s bath free of charge,” it mentioned in Japanese.
In complete, over the course of my 28 days spent visiting all 88 temples, I used to be additionally given: 700 yen (about $5), 11 candies, seven small desserts, seven automobile rides, six mandarin oranges, 5 rice balls, three cookies, three sweets, three cups of inexperienced tea, two crackers, two mochi, two soda cans, two multipurpose cloths, two yuzu juice cartons, one yokan (a pink bean jelly snack), one bicycle (lent to me for half a day), one bag of steamed chestnuts, one bag of cherry tomatoes, one lunch and one bowl of home made udon.
The pilgrimage’s temples are scattered alongside the perimeter of the island — some close to the coast, and a few farther into the mountainous inside. Some are grouped collectively, and others are 50 miles aside.
As a pilgrim, I usually arose early — by 5:30 a.m., within the spring — and spent a full day on the street. About 80 p.c of the route is on asphalt, principally by way of open fields and small cities and previous lovely shoreline. I spent a couple of days climbing up and down mountain peaks.
The fading of Japan’s rural inhabitants is dramatically evident on Shikoku. Young individuals have fled to the cities or to different islands that provide a greater high quality of life. My expertise confirmed as a lot: Nearly all the younger individuals I noticed had been within the capitals of the island’s 4 prefectures.
For breakfast and dinner, many pilgrims reap the benefits of home-cooked meals supplied by most minshuku, or family-operated bed-and-breakfasts, and ryokan, conventional Japanese inns. These meals often encompass rice, miso soup, fish and pickled greens. For lunch, relying on one’s location, comfort shops can present a fast chunk.
In spite of the delectable meals, the gorgeous vistas and the charming cultural histories, it was the individuals I met who had the strongest impact on me.
At a hostel one night time I met Midori-san, a 71-year-old pilgrim who spoke no English. She confirmed me behave at a big sentō, or public bathhouse.
Once, once I requested the 2 workers at a mountain temple’s stamp workplace if the temple provided free lodging, they replied that it didn’t. But, talking by way of a translator on my telephone, they provided to drive me to a spot the place I may camp in a close-by valley.
Just a few days later, hoping to see the panorama from a distinct perspective, I boarded a tiny ferry with a fellow pilgrim, Patricia, and went zigzagging for practically an hour in Uranouchi Bay. Patricia and I had been the one vacationers on board.
One very wet day, after strolling for a number of hours underneath a water-resistant however sweltering poncho, I made a decision to hitchhike to the following temple, which was a few hours away. After I caught my thumb out on a busy street for a couple of minutes, a person in a beat-up van stopped. He spoke no English, as I discovered to be widespread on Shikoku, and I knew just a few related phrases in Japanese. Still, because the previous van cautiously made its means up a winding street, we managed to alternate a couple of sentences.
I obtained the sensation that the scenario drastically amused him — and I used to be proved proper when he referred to as his spouse on an previous telephone and mentioned, with amusing, that he had picked up a foreigner who had grown determined underneath a torrential downpour.
Before we parted methods, he requested me to repeat my title, and wrote it down on the again of a receipt in katakana, a Japanese alphabet generally used for international phrases. “Ma-ru-ta,” he mentioned aloud, sounding out the characters. And then he was gone as rapidly as he’d appeared. Grateful for the favor, and grateful to be dry, I watched his truck vanish round a bend and turned towards the trail to the temple.
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