Ayako Takeshitaf‚“@Home@Page

Let me introduce myself. My name is Ayako Takeshita. I was born in Ryonan Town, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan on February, 18 1982

I am a first year student at Kagawa Juniar College in Japan.

My major is Elderly Care Social work.

My hobbis are watching TV and lisning music and driving car. I like eating are tofu and udon and kimuchi -nabe very much.I like visiting Kyoto City in Japan.

Kiyomizudera, Kinkakuji, Gion, very beautyful. My dream is living in Kyoto.

My hobby is watching movie.like action movie very much.Especially a favorite movie is a "matrix." It was excited for cool performance of Keanu Reeves of starring.

 Japan's boast is the four seasons. Repeatedly, it is cheerful and all lives are full of life in spring. a cherry tree -- blooming --he goes out for cherry blossom viewing It talks together, eating under a cherry tree with food and alcohol. It is a fresh green season in summer. Sea bathing, a summer festival, and people enjoy themselves. Autumnal leaves dye mountains in autumn. A Pacific saury, a matsutake chestnut, a sweet potato, etc. are the delicious seasons of food. The event of the New Year and the eve of the beginning of spring occurs in winter. The New Year is the beginning of the new year. It goes to a shrine to visit and I celebrate the new year.I am impressed very much, when touching the four seasons of Japan. When feeling business of natural greatness and human being, I am very proud of it being a Japanese.

My Home page address ishttp://www.geocities.co.jp/CollegeLife-Labo/4001/2004/003013.html


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My Favorite Region

Quoted from the Shikoku Bilingual Guidebook by Akiko Takemoto and Steve McCarty


PREFACE

Visiting or living in Sikoku is something special , for this island has always been the spiritual 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-eight 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 ligfter 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 known as O-Sikoku -san, showing that " Dear old Shikoku Prigrimage" is synonymous with this island and provides sanctuary to the soul of Japan.The scenes along the Shikoku Pilgrimage correspond well to whjat Shikoku offers -- the Seto Island Sea, the Uwa-kkai Sea- the Pacific Ocean, the green mountains that crown a large part of the island , cosy little towns and middle-sized cities that fringe the coasts.

Its climate is mild ;the seas are bountiful; the land is fertile. Naturally lovcal people have been content with their blessed island, even if it has remained underveloped 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 centuris, however, Sikoku did not stand aloof but observed movements on the Island Sea as an artery of Japan' s cultural , political and economic development. On thje oyher hand, Shikoku 's unique attractions such sa the Sikoku Pilgrimage, Kompira worship and the Dogo Onsen Hot Spring spa have always drown a large number of people from the capitals and other parts of the main islamnd of Honshu and neighboring Kyushu.

Naturally those visitors brought something new with them each time, just as refugees and exiles from the capitals added color to the island' s history. They were welcomed and something the culture they brought here was carefully preserved or developed even long after being forgotten in its techniques. There cultural assets now peculiar to Shikoku have added another dimension rewarding travelers to this island.

A new type of attradtion in Sikoku 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 islands, pleasure resorts, there parks, museums , skyline drives and relatively inexpensive golf courses. So the charm of Shikoku can rightly be mondernity, 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 father of Japanese culture, the man who aired the idea of the Seto Ohashi 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 Japanesew history. There must have been something inspiring on this island.

We hope this guidebook willb help you enjoy Shikoku , and Japan herself seen throught Shikoku, finding inspiration of your own by traveling around this small but great island. Bon Voyabe!

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Kukai / Shikoku Pilgrimage

THE SHIKOKU PILGRIMAGE

The pligrimage known as Shikoku Henro or O-Shikoku -san is the oldest and most famous in Japan. circumambllating the island via the 88 Buddhist temples designated as the Sacred Places of Shikoku is meant to follow the trail kobo Daishi (kukai) walked in his youth for ascetic practice, searching for the Truth.
That is why the acthentic pligrims 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, pludding along sandy beaches, rocky coasts, through fields and hills, villages and towns. Indeed, it is a walking Zan.
The Shikoku Pilgrimage is nonsectarian, thrugh Kukai was tha founder of tha 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 75 th sacred Plase of Shikoku, as the third son of Saeki Yoshimichi, the Lord of the County. The boy Kukai was so bright and gifted that his parents expected him to go into government service, the most respected profession at the time. When he was 15, 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, poetry, filial piety and loyalty. What he has 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 vast as space, through mantra-reciting one million times according to the proper method -- which was to enable his to acquire a phenomenal memory of teachings and principles. This made him choose Buddhism and the priesthood rather than Confucianism and bureaucracy. He left the university. It was a very hard on the tradition and expectations of his own clan. Yet he had to.

For many years he applied himself alternately to the intense study of Buddhist texts and to meditation deep in the mountains. At 19, in a cave at Cape Murota, the southeastern tip of Shikoku Island, he finally succeeded in attaining enlightenment through performing Kokuzo-gumonjiho. What he had been seeing all the while was the sky and the sea -- the Pacific Ocean. In memory of this great moment, he desided to call himself Kukai -- Sky and Sea.

At 24, he finished Sango Shiiki, a drama in which he compared the three principles he had already mastered -- Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism -- to demonstrate the supremacy of Buddhism. It was his final declaration of turning to Buddhism.

Yet Kukai was not satisfied with the Buddhism of those days in Japan. He was searching for something like the unity of the Buddha's teachings Then he found the sutra that presented the Buddha Mahavairocana as idealizing the truth of the universe. But there were passages so mysterious that no one in Japan could tell him anything about them. So he decided to go China. At 31 he succeeded in accompanying the envoy to T' ang China.

At the Chinese Capital, Ch' ang-an, the greatest cosmopolitan city at that time, he met Abbot Hui-kuo, the 7th patriarch of Esoteric Buddhism, who had already had no less than one throusand disciples. The moment he set eyes on the young man from Japan, the abbot knew he was the very person he had long been waiting for as his successor. All those years of hard study and ascetic practices had brought him so close to his Chinese mastar that, after three months of study under the abbot, Kukai was ordained as the 8th patriarch of Esoteric Buddhism.

At the end of the year (805) , Abbot Hui-kuo passed away. Before his dealth, he had told Kukai to return to Japan as soon as possible to spread the teachings to increase the happiness of the people there. But how could he return soon? There were 18 years before another Japanese mission was to come to China. . .

Then the Emperor of the T' ang Dynasty died and a Japanese delegation came to Ch' ang-an to attend his funeral. Kukai was allowed to join their return journey. It was fortunate for the Japanese to have him back so soon, considering his great avhievements in the ensuing years. In fact it was not until 34 years later that another envoy seat to China returned to Japan. Three years earlier Kukai had passed away.

After 16 months in Ch' ang-sn, Kukai brought home from China 247 scrolls of precious sutras, 44 scrolls of Sanskrit mantras and stotras, 170 scrolls of scriptural commentraries, 9 kings of ritual implements, and a number of religious images and objects. There must have also been some Chinese works of literature, language, medicine, colligraphy and art. It is generally believed that Kukai introduced measures and rules, Chinese-type medicines, of making Indian ink and writing brushes, and of building Chinese temples, bridges and embankments. He and process it, to use coal and petrol, and to make Chinese cakes and candies.

He brought all these things to firmly take root in the soil of Japan ,greatly raising her religious and cultural standard, until at last she begin to produse her own Buddhism and her own culture. This acconts for why Kukai is often credited as a father of Japanese cuiture.

In fact, the first things to firmiy take root in the soil of Japen was to reread all those enormous volumes of sutras, trying to unite the two kinds of esoteric Buddhism --Kongokai ( the spiritual principle ) and Taizokai (the physical principle ) --into one. Thus he finally created a new esoteric Buddhism which he called the Esoteric Buddhism which he called the Esoteric Buddhism of Shingon.

Kukai was also fortunate enough to have the Emperor Saga, a scholar, poet and admirer of advanced culture from the Continent, as his patron and longtime friend. He was grndted possession of Mt. Koya in Kii (Wakayama Pref.) , where he founded a monastic center for students of meditation. It was also his spiritual home, where he wrote mary books of immense value, one of which was Jujushinron in which he examined all the philosophies and religion known at that time in the Eastern world, comparing them with his own Esoteric Buddhism of Shingon.

Later the Emperor presented him with a state temple, Toji in Kyoto, sa his headquarters in propagating his Esoteric Buddhism of Shingon. It focuses on this life, saying that men and women have the seed of Buddhahood within them, and that by following its precepts and practices, anyone can achieve enlightenment in this lifetime.

Then Kukai founded the first school in Japan open to the poor as well as to the rich. A dictionary in 30 volumes which he compiled for the pupils there was the first of its kind in Japan.

It is widely believed that Kobo Daishi invented hiragana ( the Japanese phonetic syllabary ) and created katakana ( another syllabary ) throught his knewledge of Sanskrit. Until then, reading and writing were restricted to scholars and aristocrats who could spend years learning thousands of Chinese characters. Now kana syllabaries enabled even common people to write their language phonetically. Noblewoman also took up kana, producing fine novels, essays, diaries and poems. It was with kana that Lady Murasaki wrote perhaps the world' s first great novel, The Tale of Genji.

There are about 3,000 folktales and legends about Kobo Daishi ( Kukai ) told and retold all over commanded such devotion. Many pf the tales are about how he saved people by bringing forth a spring, the crippled ability to walk, and so on. These stories are based on the fact that he never tired of putting the profound ideas of his religion into practice to bring happiness to people.

After his passing away in 835, those who believed in his nyujo or entering into a plane of meditation, began to make the rounds of his memorial places in Shikoku. This is considered to be the origin of the Shikoku Pilgrimage. Even today formal priglims will start from Koyasan, and after making the cricuit of 88 temples, will return to Koyasan via Temple No.1, just as the first disciples of Kobo Daishi did long ago.

In 921 the man who called himself Priest Kukai was posthumously canonized as Kobo Daishi. "Daishi " means " Great Saint ", a title bestowed by the Imperial Count upon Buddhist priests of the highest virtue. " Kobe " means " to spread widely the Teachings." There are 23 saints who have been conferred the title of Daishi. But as a popular saying goes: "Kobo made off with the title of Daishi." That is, when one speaks of the Daishi there is no question whom one means. Yet in Shikoku people often call this saint of saints "O - Daishi - san" as if he were one of their neighbors, revealing their affectionate love of him and their belief that he is still here.

How to Make the Shikoku Pilgrimage

Usually the pligrimage is made clockwise. But some people deliberately make a counterclockwise cricuit as Emon Saburo did until he finally succeeded in maating the Daishi. The number 88 represen ts the number of evil passions identified by Buddsist doctrine, and ideally it is believed that one can get rid of all evil passions by visiting each of the 88 temples. In that sense, visiting even one temple is better than none.
Temple No.1 is where pilgrims are given the Buddhist Ten Commandments to follow at least during yhe Pilgremage: Do not kill. Donot steal. Do not commit adultery. Do not tell a lie. Do not use flowery language. Do not speak ill of others. Do not be double - tongued. Do not be covetous. Do not be angry. Do not be perverse.
Some temples are comperatively accessible. But many of them are located in or atop mountains or in remote villages, as Kukai chose such places for his ascetic practices. Until only about 20 years ago, some temples were really hard to reach, though nowadays newly-built roads and ropeways have made less forbidding.
The most authentic pilgrims go on foot all the way, spending about two months, because walking is colosent to following in the Daishi's footsteps. Some young people go by bicycle or motorbike. Some family groups drive their cars, while others hire a taxi. Still‚  others ride the nearest trains,buses and ropeways to the temple on their own ( 20 days or more are required). Nowadays many people like to join the conducted bus tours ( 12 days :about yen 170,000 including 3 meals a day). Reservations are necessary.
Traditionally there are two pligrimage seasons, spring and autumn, with the equinoxes as the climax, when pilbrims are generously presented with o-settai ( free gifts of food and drink ) by local people at the temples. But all yera round visitors are seen at the temples.
People usually go in sportswear or everyday clothes, in sneakers and sun visors. But not a few wear the formal costumes of Shikoku Pilgrims -- the sedge hat, the wooden staff, the while suit and pouches, all bearing their motto writeen in calligraphy ( dogyo ninin ) meating "Daishi and I , going together " or ( Namu Daishi Henjo Kongo ) meating " I put my faith in Daishi , the Universal Adamantine I11uminator. "
Of all the equipment, the most important is the staff. It is not just for practical use when one hikes along rugged paths in the mountains, but it is a holy symbol of the Daishi himself. So pilgrims always treat it with utmost care and reverense.
In former days the same staff became one's grave post if one died on the way, as was often the case in those days when everyone had to walk all the way. That is why the top of the staff is designed like a Buddhist grave post. In fact, the white suit itself was and still is nothing but death garments.
If the tample has a bell tower, one is expected to strike the bell announcing one's arrival to the temple divinitins and Kobo Daishi. The multi - storied pagodas are derived from Buddha's tombs one should visite at least two halls -- the main hall housing the principal image and the Daishi - do Hall dedicated to the Daishi. One may drop a coin into the grate - covered offering boxes placed in front of the halls. Pilgrims offer their osamefuda paper name card at each hall. White osanefuda are used by those on their first to ninth prigrimage, red for the tenth to nineteenth, silver for the twentieth to twenty - ninth and gold for the thirtieth and more.
Most prilgrims go to an office called Nokyo - sho in or around the main hall to have the temple's signature inscribed in fine calligraphy and its vermilion seal stamped in their album or scroll or on their which jacket ( about Yen 2oo ) . In this area there are maps showing how to get to the nearest temples.
Accommodations are adequate in or around the temples ( Yen 4,000 or so a night with two meals ) . Of the 88 temples, 46 have their own ladges for prigrims. For the prigrimage season, reservetions at least a week in adavance are necessary ; at often times one is expected to call on the previous day. There are also minshuku, Kokumin Shukusha, Youth Hostels or prilgrims' inns available near almost all the 88 temples.

For details on bus tours, call the following : Iyo Tetsudo Inc. : 790 Matsuyama-shi Misato-machi ( 0899 ) 48- 3311

Kotohira Sangu Inc. : 763 kagawa-ken Marugame-shi Nakabu-cho Telephone- ( 0877 ) 22-2151

Tokushima Bus Inc. : 770 Tokushima-shi Terajima Hon-machi Telephone- ( 0886 ) 53-7110

Kochi-ken Kotsu Inc. : 780 Kouchi-shi Ikku Telephone-no.3 ( 0888 ) 45-1611

In former days begging was an important part of the Sikoku Pilgrimage as asceticpractice. Eevn the rich of high rank had to beg from time to time. That tradition did enable even the penniless to make a pilgrimage, living on donations or what is calld o-settai from local people.

There was a custom of zengon-yado or giving a pilgrim free bed and board. In the evening a child of the house was sent out to the nearest temple to pick up one or two pilgrims to take in that night. All the host expected from them was a piece of osamefuda name card, for he was doing it for Daishi himself.

A Guide to the 88 Temples

Note : Information that follows # is for pedes trians.

Informations that follows ! shows the simplest

Way to arrive at the temple though not directly from the previous temple.

Temple No.1 Ryozen-ji 779-02 Tokushima-ken Naruyo-shi Pligrims' Lodge Telephone (0886) 89-1111 # 1km north of JR Bando.

Temple No.2 Gokurak-ji 772 Tokushima-ken Naruto-shi Pligrims' Lodge Telephone (0886) 89-1112 # 1.4 km west of No.1

Temple No.3 Konsen-ji 779-01 Tokushima-ken Itano-cho Pligrims' Lodge Telephone (0886) 72-1087 # 2.5 km west of No.2 0.6 km northeast of JR Itano

Temple No.4 Dainichi-ji Telephone (0886) 72-1225

779-01 Tokushima-ken Itano-cho # 4.7km west of No.3 1.3km north of rakan Bus Stop after a 10 minute ride from JR Itano ( Tokushima Bus bound for Kajiyabashi )

Temple No.5 Jizo-ji Telephone (0886) 72-4211

779-01 tokushima-ken Itano-cho Rakan # 1.8 km southwest of No.4

Temple No.6 Anraku-ji 771-13 Tokushima-ken kamiita-cho Prigrims' Lodge Telephone (0886) 94-2946 # 5.2 km west of No.5 Close to Rokuban mae Bus Stop after a 20 minute ride from JR Itano ( JR Bus bound for Kamojima : 3 times a day )

Temple No.7 Juraku-ji 771-15 Tokushima-ken Donari-cho Pligrims' Lodge Telephone ( 0886) 95-2150 # 1.1 km west of No.6 0.2 km Nanaban Fudasho mae Bus Stop after a 3 minute ride from Rokuban Fudasho mae ( JR Bus :Yamate Line ).

Temple No.8 Kumadani-ji Telephone (0886) 95-2065

771-15 Tokushima-ken Donari-cho # 4.3 km northwest of No.7 1.8 km from Awa Yoshida Bus Stop after a 3 minute ride from Nanaban Fudasho mae ( JR Bus bound for Kamojima).

Temple No.9 Horin-ji Telephone (0886) 95-2080 Tokushima-ken Donari-cho # 2.8 km southwest of No.8 0.6 km from kyuban Fudasho mae Bus Stop after a 5 minute ride from Kumadani-ji mae ( JR Bus bound for kamojima via Horinji : once a day )

Temple No.10 Kirihata-ji Telephone (0883) 36-3010 771-16 Tokushima-ken Ichiba-cho # 4 km west of no.9 4.5 km from Kirihata-ji mae Bus Stop after a 9 minute ride from Kuban Fudasho mae ( JR Bus :Yamate Line ).

Temple No.11 Fujii-dera Telephone (0883) 24-2384 776 Tokushima-ken Kamojima-cho # 9.1 km south of No.10 3km southwest of JR Komajima ( Tokushima-Line) after a 24 minute bau ride from Kiriharta-ji mae Bus Stop ( JR Bus :Yamate Line ).

Temple No.12 Shozan-ji 771-34 Tokushima-ken Kamiyama-cho Pligrims' Lodge telephone (0886) 77-0112 # 16.8 km south of No.11 via the pligrim's path. 4.4 km via a mountain path after a 1 hour 25 minute bus ride from JR Tokushima ( Tokushima Bus bound for Shoza-ji ).

Temple No.13 Dainichi-ji 771-31 Tokushima-shi Ichinomiya-cho Pligrima's Lodge telephone (0886) 44-0069 # 30 km east of No.12 An hour ride from mae ( Tokushima Bus bound for JR Tokushima : 3 times a day ).

Temple No.14 Joraku-ji Telephone (0886) 42-0471 779-31 Tokushima-shi Kokubu-cho # 2.2 km north of No.13

Temple No.15 Kokubun-ji Telephone (0886) 42-0525 779-31 Tokushima-shi Kokubu-cho # 0.8 km north of No.14

Temple No.16 kannon-ji Telephone (0886)42-2375 779-31 Tokushima-shi Kokubu-cho # 1.4 km north of No.15

Temple No.17 Ido-ji 779-31 Tokushima-shi Kokubu-cho Pilgrims' Lodge telaphone (0886) 42-1961 # 3 km north of No.16 2 km from hayabuchi bus Stop after a 4 minute ride from kannonji Kita ( Tokushima Bus bound for JR Tokushima ). ! A 20 minute walk from JR Fuchu ( Tokushima Line).

Temple No.18 Onzan-ji 773 Tokushima-ken Komatushima-shi Pligrims' Lodge Telephone (0885) 32-1114 # 19.6 km south of No.17 A 10 minute bus ride from JR Komatsushima (Mugi Line) to Onzanji mae Bus Stop (Komatsushima Shiei Bus).

Temple No.19 Tatue-ji 773 Tokushima-shi Pligrims' Lodge Telephone (0885) 37-1019

# 4.7 km southwest of No.18 0.4km from Tatsue Nishi after a 10 minute ride from Onzanji ,ae Bus Stop a 15 minute walke from Onzan-ji ( Komatsushima Shiei Bus bound for Tachiki or Kaibara). ! 0.4 km north of JR Tatsue ( Mugi Line ).

Temple No.20 kakurinji 771-43 Tokushima-ken Katuura-cho pligrims' Lodge Telephone (0885)42-3020 # 20 km northeeast of No.19 ! 4.7 north of Ikuna Bus Stop after a 30 minute ride from Minami Chitosebashi, a 3 minute walk from JR Minami Komatsushima ( Tokushima Bus bound for Yokose ).

Temple No.21 Tairyu-ji (0884)62-2021 771-51 Tokushima-ken Anan-shi # 7 km south of No.20 An hour and a half hour's walke and climb from Omatsu Gongen mae Bus Stop after a 30 minute bus ride from Tomioka near JR Anan ( Mugi Line ) ( Tokushima Bus bound for Kamabani ).

Temple No.22 Byodo-ji 779-15 Tokushim-ken Anan-shi Pligrims' Lodge Telephone (0884)36-2023 # 13 km southwest of No.21 ! 2 km from JR Aratano (Mugi Line).

Temple No.23 Ykuo-ji 779-23 Tokushima-ken Hiwasa-cho # 22.5 km south of No.22 Telephone (0884)77-0023

Temple No.24 Hotsumisaki-ji 781-71 Kochi-ken Morato-shi Youth Hostel & Pligrims' Lodge telephone ( 0887)23-0024 # 86 km south of no.23

Temple No.25 Shinsho-ji 781-71 kochi -ken Muroto-shi Pilgrims7 Lodge Telephone (0887)22-0288 # 6.1 km northwest of no.24 0.5 km north of Muroto Bus Stop after a 15 minute ride from higashi-dera Noboriguchi ( Kochi-ken Kotsu bus bound for kochi).

temple no.26 Kongocho-ji 781-71 kochi-ken muroto-shi pilgrims7 lodge (0887) 22-0378 # 5 km northwest of no.25 2.7km from motohashi Bus Stop

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