Do The Shikoku 88 Temple Circuit Pilgrimage Right Here In Tsukuba At The Nichirinji Temple
By Avi Landau
In Japan, April is a month of beginnings and fresh endeavor, with millions of people
Do The Shikoku 88 Temple Circuit Pilgrimage Right Here In Tsukuba At The Nichirinji Temple
By Avi Landau
In Japan, April is a month of beginnings and fresh endeavor, with millions of people starting out at new schools,classes,grades, jobs and postings, as the academic year, as well as the fiscal year ( among other things) begin in this month. This timing seems only natural, as the cycle of rice cultivation, around which Japanese life has revolved for centuries, has traditionally begun in April, just as the cherry blossoms have fallen away, with the rice seedlings being readied and the fields being flooded and prepared for the transplantation which takes place in early May. And for those who did not or were not needed to work the soil, April has also been the traditional month for setting out on a pilgrimage.
When most Westerners hear the word PILGRIMAGE they do not think of Japan. Mecca, Rome, Lourdes, Jerusalem or even Graceland probably come to mind first. Japan, however,has been a land of GREAT pilgrimages, especially during the Edo Period (1600-1868), when the relative peace, prosperity and well maintained highway system achieved under Tokugawa hegemony made it possible for an unprecedented number of people to set off on religious journeys- either for penitence and merit or just plain adventure. Whatever the real intention was, the reason for travelling given to neighbors, and then to the authorities at the numerous and stringemt check-points was- MAKING A PIGRIMAGE. This was mainly because that was just about the only type of movement from place to place which was permitted to most citizens of Tokugawa Japan.
Japanese pilgimages can actually be divided into two types, one was the SANKEI （参詣）, or visits to individual sacred places, either mountains, temples or shrines (though before the Meiji Restorarion of 1868 what we now call Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines were not at all clearly distinguishable). These had been enjoyed by the aristocracy at least since the Nara Period, and always made a good excuse for an exciting excursion away from the cloistered confines of the Court. In the Edo period, the old highways (kaido), especially the famed Tokkaido, were usually lined back to back with pilgrims (mostly revellers in fact), who walked for weeks (almost no commoners had permission to ride a horse or in a palanquin), partying most of the way, until they reached the Grand Shrine at Ise (Mie Prefecture), where they partied some more before heading home. For a hilarious account of a pilgrimage to Ise (Ise-Mairi), read the Tokkaido-Chu Hizakurige (translated into English as Shanks Mare) by the great Edo Period writer Jippensha Ikku. It will have you laughing out loud and give you plenty of insights into what life was like of the road in those days.
The second type of pilgrimage, referred to with the Japanese word JUNREI (巡礼）, consists of doing a full circuit and visiting a complete set of specific temples, often in a set order. This was ostensibly a much more serious and solemn affair, a rite of passage of sorts, with the pilgrims donning special wear and gear, and journeying for days, weeks or months in straw sandals, with asceticisms, repentance and the gaining of merit in mind. Though there are several pilgrimage circuits which remain popular to this day, undoubtebly the most famous is the 88 temple circuit of Shikoku, in which pilgrims called O-Henro set out on an arduous 1000 km jour