They have often spent more than 60 days walking along the whole cicuit of the eighty-eight temples that compose the longest, oldest and most popular pilgrimage in Japan.

Even those who have arrived here in weriness of life,in unhappiness or weak health, have usually left the island with a lighter hart, more enlightened, and in many cases in improved health.

Though yoday the island is quite accessible and eighty-eight temples still remain veary hard to reach.

This pilgrimage circling the island is nationally known as O-Shikoku-san, showing that "Dear old Shikoku Pilgrimage" is synonymous with 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 ocean, the green mountains that crown a large part of the island, cosy litte towns and middle-sized is mild; the seas are bountiful; the land is fertile. Naturally local people have been countent is fertile. Naturally local people have been content with thir blessed island, even if it has remained underdeveloped since the 8th century. Uutil 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 centurise, hoewever, Shikoku did not stand aloof bbut observed movements on the Inland sea as an artery of Japan's cultural, political and economic development. On 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 pats of the main island of Honshu and neighboring Kyshu.

Naturally those visitors brought something new with them each time, just as refugess and exiles from the capitals added color tothe island's history. They were welcomed and sometimes the culture they brought here was carefully preserved or devloped even long after being forgotten in its homeland - language, assets now peculiar to Shikoku have added another dinension rewarding travelers to this island.

A new type of attraction in Shikoku is the frut of modern technology that the waves of development hae finally brought here in the 1980's and 90's - the colossal bridges connecting Shikoku with the main ialand, pleasure resorts, theme parkes, museams, skyline drives and relativery intexpensive gplf courses. So the charm of Shikoku can rightly be called an exquisite coexistence of tradition and modernity, nature and art. last but not least is spritual climate of Shikoku that has produced people like the father of the Shikoku Pigrimage, 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 mostinstrumental in carrying out the wourld as an independent nation.

They were all rarecosmopolitans in japanese history. There must have been something inspiring on this island.

Especially Noted Cuisine: Sawamachi-ryori and KatsuonoTataki (bonito seared only on the surface)

Kochi, the largest city on the pacific coast, is the capital of Kochi Prefecture, especially know for its marine products, forestly and greenhouse culture of vegetabules. The fising ports dotted along the Pacific coast are useally busy with small boats that bring in bonito and mackerel from the warm current offshore, and sometimes with big boats that have made six- or seven-month voyages after tuna into the Indian ocean, the Tasman Sea, even the atlantic.

Men in this prefecture have long been know for a trait called igosso.When a man is called igosso, it means he is gallantly generous, obstinally indepent, carefree and passionate in his nsually unpredictable actions. Woman of the same type are called hachikin.

Kochi was also a catle town. The approach to the castle gate is liveliest on Sunday as the 3-century-old Sunday Market is held there, the 1.2 km avenue lined with hundreds of stals stocked with every kind of local product imaginable - vegetabies, fruits, floweres, trees, rae, dried or cooked fish, coral crafts, toys, knives, antiques, old clothes, china, earthenware, kittens, puppies, granny's pickles, cookies, candies, rice cakes, pancakes and sundry items.

The donjion houses a museum exhibiting a large collection of mementoes of the Yamanouchi Family and historical assets of the provice, with one wing dedicted to local people who in the 1860's became a driving force in overethrowing the Shogunate and restoring imperial rule.

Tosa was at the vanguard when Japan was at this critical turning point in her history. The 15th lord of Tosa Province, Yamanouchi Yodo for his part presented the Shogun a petition for the peaceful restoration of imperial rule.

As the Shogun accepted it in 1867 a bloodless transference of the reins of government was tentatively achieved though its aftermath, the Boshin civin War, was far from bloodless.At the entrance hall of the museam, there are some exhibitions concerning two of the favorite sons of Tosa Province - Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro.

One of the captions is quoted from the postscript to Vol.1 of Ryoma ga yuku, a biographical novel of Sakamoto Ryoma, written by a leading novelist of contemporary Japan, Shiba Ryotaro:

As 19 he want up to Edo (Tokyo) to sharpen his swordsmanship. But in July of that year (1853), Edo and its vicinity were thrown into chaos: Commodore Perry of the United states arrived at trety. Japan had maintained a national isolation pollowed was unprecedented in the history of this country. Ryoma was simply a bewildered observer at that time.

In 1862 he returned to Edo after disenfranchising hinself of goshi status in his home province. Soon he came to Know Katsu Kaishu, the Shogun's Commissioner of the Warship Department. Katsu was among the most knowledgeable of internal and external affairs at that time. Two years earlier he had been to America as the captain of the first Japanese boat to cross the Pacific, when the Shogun sent a delegation to WAshington to conclude a treaty of friendship and commerce with the U.S.A. He was a man of foresight, too, curiously unselfish and detached from the Shogunate he served.

Ryoma offered himself as Katsu's assistant and leaned under him Western navigation and studies inclding polical science, philosophy and law.

Katsu also intoduced Ryoma to his colleagues and friends. Some of them were progressive scholars or thinkers; othes were politically influential. The latter turnrd out to be instrumental when Ryoma began to carry out his revolutionary plans.

First he started a trading corporation with some of the former students of the Navy Training Institute, established by Katsu in 1864 butclosed the next year when it was suspected of being "a den of radicals" and Katsu was dismissed.

Now Ryoma knew ships were his passion and that the future of Japan was on the sea - in trading. To begin with, Ryoma approration in Nagasaki with the Satsuma Clan as a major shareholder. This was Japan's first joint stock company.

His next idea was to have someone bring forward amotion to the Shogun for the Restoretion of Imperial Rule. Ryoma brought his Eight-point Plan to Goto Shojiro, Chief Secretary of Load Yamanouchi Yodo in Tosa, his home province. Goto felt it could be acceptable not only to the Emperor but also to the Tokugawa family if not the Shogunate itself.

In fact, his Plan slightly revised by Goto, did prove to be acceptable to all sides including Lord Yamanouchi who agreed to present the motion in his own name. On October 15, 1866, the Shogun Yoshinobu adopted it to avoid a great deal of further bloodshed.

That very night Ryoma planned how to oreganoze a provisional goverment for the new erato come. The next day he produced a list of cabinet personnel.Both were agreed upon ny all concerned.

At first ther were surprised not to see the name of Ryoma himeserf on the list. Wasn't he the leader of this revolution? When asked why, Ryoma simply answered, "I am not interested in working in an office. Itink I'll go back to sea - the seas of the world."

Yet he stayed busy guiding the Meiji Restorantion and planning the new goverment. But a month later, on November 15, on his 33rd birthday, Rtoma wasassassinated in Kyoto.

Before his untimely death, however, Ryoma seemed to have done everthing he thought he had to. The administrative policy he had prepared was willingly adopted by the new government.

The Five -point Imperial Oath delivered by Emperor Meiji in 1868, in effect the first constitution of modern Japan, was derrived from the Eight-point Plan Ryoma had made two years before.

Here comes another igosso, Itagaki Taisuke(1837-1919). During the Boshin Civil War (p.124), Itagaki led his Tosa le-gion to subjugate the pro- Shogunate clan of AIzu (Fukushima Pref.).

During the battle he keenly felt the necessity for the equality of people, when he saw only the privileged class of warriors upholding the Aizu cause in that test of loyalty. The other classes, who had long been left in the cold, simply fled. Itagaki said to himself, "It's only natural; only where there are rights is there duty."

A few years later when Itagaki retired from the cabinet in Tokyo, he started working to imperial Charter Oath delivered by Emperor Meiji - "Deliberative assemblies shall be established on an extensive scale, and all measuresof goverment shall be desided by public opinion."

In 1873, he and other members of the Aikoku Koto Party - the first political association of the gpvernment, requesting the establishment of a parliamentary goverment, but without success. He returned to Kochi and established the Risshi - sha society to propagate democratic principles, a pioneer among political societies emerging at that time.

By 1881 the national movement for democratic rights had reached its zenith and finally obtainad the goverment's pledge to inaugurate a National Assembly in 1890.

But when the first Deliberative Council was finally assembled and the Liberal Party was reorganized, ithad already lost its original spirit. To the frustration of Itagaki, it was difficult for liberalism, specially in politics, to take root in Japan.

In one well-know episode, when her husband was still an unknown young samurai in Owari (Aichi Pref.), she heard he was anxious to have a fleet steed but could not afford it, and promptly produced a sufficient cache of money she had carefully saved.

By virtue of that wonderful horse, Kazutoya's readiness to help his master was first recognized by Oda Nobunaga, ultimate victor of the long Civil War from 1477 to 1573. Kazutoya continued his successful career until hewas appointed Load of Tosa Province by the Tokugawa Shogunate with a fiefof 240,000 koku, the largest in Shikoku.

Naturally many wives in Japan still like to cite "Yaanouchi Kazutoya's wife" to justify thair secret savings.

Chosokaba Motochika (1539-99), like many other warords in the Civil War Period thatLasted about a century from the close of the 15th Century, fought for his autonomy and for the increase of his fief nutil he finally subjugated the whole island of Shikoku (1584).

But soon he had to fight against Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the successor to Oda Nobunaga as the strongest civil-war baron steadily unifying the contry. When Motochika was defeated, he had to give up all the Landshe had invaded - Awa, Sanuki and Iyo. And it was only by helping Hideyoshi subjugate Kyushu that Motochika was formally appointed Load of Tosa.

Soon after his death, however, his heir Morichika forght a losing batlle against the Tokugawas at Sekigahara, only to be deprived of his fief. In 1615 he was killed during the Tokugawa 's siege against Osaka Catle. This spelled the ens of the Chosokabe eminense.

(Tosa Dentetsu Bu bound for Chikurinji).

Chikurin-ji Temple (No.31), situated ontop of Godaisan Hill, is one of the biggest of the 88 temples. The main image, Manjusr,the Bodhisattva of wisdom and images in the treasure house are all Important Cultural Properties.

Just next to the temple is Makino Botanical Garden, a 30,000 garden with 12,000 species, built in memory of the world-fomous botanist image in the treasure house are all Important Cultural Properties.

This beach on the Pacific Ocean is among the most popular in Shikoku.The shell Museum near the bus stop displays a collection of 100,000 specimens. Open daily . Admission: 500yen.

The Aquarium on the beach is another attrastion. Open daily. Admission: 950yen (High school studeants: 600yen)

Looking over the ocean is a statue of Sakamoto Ryoma erected in 1928 by Ryoma admirwrs on top of a small hill near the Tosa Fighting Dog Center. On another hill behind is the Ryoma Memorial Museam, which was also funded by Ryoma admirers all over the country. High technology is utilized in various ways to introduce his dramatic life. (p.124)

Kochi Prefecture is known for the two types dogs - the native Tosa Dog as a Natural Monument and the Tosa Fighting Dogs, crossbreeds of the native dogs with mastiffs, bulldogs are carefully traind and the game is conducted under strict rules.

A dog that whines or turns its hind to the opponent is judged the loer.

[From Kochi] An hour bus ride from Seibu Terminal in Kochi (Tosa Dentetsu).

For the Ryoma Wax Doll museam, get off at Otani-bashi in Noichi-cho.

Ryogado Stalactite Garotto deep in Mt. Sampo is one of the biggest three of its kind in Japan. Visitors are guided along a 1 km path, about a quartar of the whole grotto, thought to be 150,000,000 years old.

For those who are not claustrophobic, stalactites of various shapes and sizes highliht a narrow mazewhere falls resound and atreams murmur. There are about 100 animal species living in the darkness - bats, shrimp, crabs and so on.

When the grotto was discovered in 1931, they found not a few relics from the Yayoi Period (roughly 300 B.C.-300 A.D.). In one corner, more than a dozen earthenware vessesls remained almost intact, togetther with some stoneware, animal bones and shells. Another corner had a water jar to collect water dripping from above - now a stalactine.

Open daily: 8:30-16:30 Admission: 850yen.

Situated on the Shimanto, the largest river in Shikoku, the city is known as Little Kyoto because of its checered streets and places named after those in Kyoto. The origin of the city dates back to 1468 when Ichijo Norfusa, thr former Chief Advisor to the Emperor, chose to live here, taking refuge from the Onin Civil War in Kyoto.

When Norifusa because Lord of Tosa, the small village of Nakamura was made the capital of the Land of Tosa and remained so for about a century until 1573 when Chosokabe Motochika (p.131) banished Load Ichijo's descendents to Kyushu.

Ishijo-jinja Shrine 1.built at the site of the recidence of the Ichijo family, Fuwa Hachiman-gu Shrine 2.and Taihei-ji 3.are among the historic spots remaining from the heyday of Nakamura.. A most spectacular Gion Matsuri Festival(the 1st weekend in Augest) at Gion-jinja 4.was also started by Ichijo Norifusa.