How to become a pilgrim in Japan

While on weekend drives with friends while I was living on Shikoku, we amused ourselves by spotting お遍路さん, ohenro-san, pilgrims to the 88 temples. Many of them are easy to spot because they wear white clothing and sedge hats and carry backpacks.

In the year that I lived there, I managed to visit a dozen of the 88 temples associated with Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism who was born in Kagawa Prefecture on Shikoku. Someday I’ll book a month off and do the route. Meanwhile, when I plan a weekend trip, I check to see if there are any temples on other circuits.

Monks at Mount Koya, the center of Shingon Buddhism, photo WolfgangMichel 

Why do it?

I’m not a Buddhist, but that doesn’t stop me. I find that reading up on temples in regions I want to visit gives me a target for my travels. And it fills out the historical timeline - I’ve learned a lot about the different eras of Japan and the influence of Buddhist thought on Japan’s culture. Many temples are surrounded by natural landscapes or have gardens and seasonal color.

Epic journeys

Visiting all the 88 Shikoku temples is a major undertaking - the route is 1200 km long. I managed to visit many and have fond memories of the surrounding towns and villages there. One of these days, I’ll book some weeks off to walk, cycle, and perhaps ride buses to complete the route. Another route I’ve stepped foot on is the Kumano Kodo. Rather than a single route, it’s a series of paths that connect sacred places in the Kii Peninsula.

I got a taste of the Shingon Buddhist heritage at Koyasan, the sacred mountain, on a two-night stay where I got to savor a Buddhist vegetarian meal and participate in the gomataki fire ritual each morning at 5 a.m. and hear the Daito bell. My way up the mountain was via trains and the steep cable car that terminates at Gokurakubashi, “the bridge to heaven” station.

Leisurely walks and day hikes

Not all of my pilgrimages have been major undertakings. An easy route is a Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage in miniature in northern Chiba Prefecture. In the Taisho era local people plotted a path to commemorate the building of the Tone Canal between the Edo and Tone Rivers. It’s a bit like a treasure hunt trying to find all of them and I rely on Google Maps where some local person has pinned the tiny wooden structures.

A traditional way to mark the new year is a 七福神巡り, Shichifukujin meguri, walks to temples that are identified with the Seven Gods of Good Fortune. Tokyo alone has dozens of them, and there are another dozen scattered around the Kanto region.

A little at a time

On weekends, I sometimes visit 阪東三十三観音, the 33 Bando Kannon temples scattered around the Kanto plain. One of my favorites is Amabiki Kannon on one of Mt. Tsukuba’s ridges. My most recent target was Jionji, an ancient site in Saitama Prefecture that has been a destination for over 1000 years. 

A trove of information I refer to is Nippon Reijo, an extensive list of Japan's pilgrim routes and places.

Are you a pilgrim, too? Which routes have you followed? Which ones do you recommend?