Self-Introduction Let me introduce myself. My name is Rie Higashihara. I was born in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan on _August 13, 1982.
I am a second year student at Kagawa Junior College in Japan. Our class home page is http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/students. My major is Management and Information.
My hobby is listening to music.
THE SHIKOKU PILGRIMAGE The pilgrimage known as Shikoku Henro or O-shikoku-san is the oldest and most famous in Japan. Circumambulating the island via the 88 Buddhist temples designated as the Sacred Places of Sikoku is meant to follow the trail kobo Daishi (Kukai) walked in his youth for ascetic, searching for the Truth.
That is why the authentic pilgrims go on foot as the great saint did long ago. It takes about 60 days to hike the 1,647 km, going deep into rugged mountains, plodding along sandy beaches, rocky coasts, through fields and hills, villages and towns. Indeed, it is a walking Zen.
The Shikoku Pilgrimage is nonsectarian, though kukai was the founder of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism. Pilgrims seem to forget their Buddhist sects in worshiping Kobo Daishi who stands far beyond factionalism .Not all of the 88 temples are of the Shingon sect,either.It is impossible to discuss this pilgrimage without recounting the life of Kukai.
The Life of Kukai Mao (Kukai) was born in 774 in what is now Zentsuji City,the seat of Zentsu-ji temple the 75th Sacred Place of Sikoku,as the third son of Saeki Yoshimichi,the Lord of the County.The boy Kukai was so bright and gifted that his parents expected profession at the time.When he was 15,he was sent up to Kyoto,the then new capital, where he studied with his maternal uncle,a great Confucianist and tutor to one of the Emperor's sons.
At 18,he entered the university and studied hard.But soon he was disappointed with the curriculum offered there - the principles of government, history,fillial piety and loyalty.What he had been searching for was the ultimate truth.
Then he happened to meet a Buddhist monk,who taught him to practice a meditation called Kokuzo-gumonjiho - to invoke Kokuzo,a deity of space whose wisdom is as space,through mantra-reciting one million times according to the people method - which was to enable him to the acquire a principles. This made him choose Buddhism and the priesthoos rather than Confuciansm and bureaucracy. He left the university.It was a very hard decision for him,because he was turning his back on the tradition and expectations of his own clan.Yet he had to.
PREFACE Visiting or living in Shikoku is something special , for this island has always been the spritual sanctuary of the Japanese people. No other place in Japan has been visited by so many generations of people from all over the country.
They have often spent more than 60 days walking along the whole circuit of the eighty-eignt temples that compose the longest , oldest and most popular pilgrimage in Japan.
Even those who have arrived here in weariness of life , in unhappiness or weak health , have usually left the island with a lighter heart , more enlightened , and in many cases in improved health.
Though today the island is quite accessible and traveling around it can be very easy , some of the eighty-eight temples still remain very hard to reach.
This pilgrimage circling the island is nationally know as 0-Shikoku-san , showing that "Dear old Shikoku Pilgrimage" is synonymous whit this island and provides sanctuary to the soul of Japan. The scenes along the Shikoku Pilgrimage correspond well to what Shikoku offers-the Seto Inland Sea , the Uwa-kai Sea , the Pacific 0cean , the green mountains that crown a large part of the island , cosy little towns and middle-sized citines that fringe the coasts.
Its climate is mild ; the seas are bountiful ; the land is fertile. Naturally local people have been content with their blessed island , even if it has remained underdeveloped since the 8th century. Until then the northern coast of Shikoku was among the first areas to enjoy civilization in Japan , as proved by so many archaeological findings.
Remote as it was for many centuries , however , Shikoku did not stand aloof but observed movements on the Inland Sea as an arthery of Japan's cultural , political and economic development. 0n the other hand , Shikoku's unique attractions such as the Shikoku PiLgrimage, Kompira worship and the Dogo Onsen Hot Spring spa have always drawn a large number of people from the capitals and other parts of the main island of Honshu and neighboring Kyusyu.
Naturally those visitors brought something new with then each time , just as refugees and exiles from the capitals added color to the island's history. They were welcome and sometimes the culture they brought here was carefully preserved or developed even long after being forgotten in its homeland - language, festivals, arts and techniques. These cultural assets now peculiar to Shikoku have added another dimension travelers to this island.
A new type of attraction in Shikoku is the fruit of modern technology that the waves of development have finally brought here in the 1980' s and 90' s - the colossal bridges connecting Shikoku with the main island, pleasure resorts, theme parks , museums ,skyline drives and relatively inexpensive golf courses. So the charm of Shikoku can rightry be called an exquisite coexistence of tradition and modernity, nature and art.
Last but not least is a spiritual climate of Shikoku that has produced people like the father of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, who is often credited as a fater of Japanese culture, the man who aired the idea of the Seto Osaka Bridge, and two young men who turned out to be most instrumental in carrying out the modernization of Japan, opening Japan's door to the world as an independent nation. They were all rare cosmopolitans in Japanese history. There must have been something inspiring on this island.
We hope this guidebook will help you enjoy Shikoku, and Japan herself seen through Shikoku, finding inspiration of your own by traveling around this small but great island. Bon voyage!