88 Temples

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Shikoku for the past thousand years has been the 88 temple tour. Visiting all of the Buddhist temples is one path to enlightenment, following in the footsteps of the 8th century buddhist saint Kobo Daishi. The first 23 temples on the circuit are around Tokushima. So on Thursday 6/12/08, we decided to take a crack at it. My guidebook had led me to believe that we could do the first ten in a day. It turned out to be a little ambitious. At the first one, pictured above, you can stock up on all the gear you need for your pilgrimage. Above, you can see the latest fashion for pilgrims (not me, the other one) with stick complete with bells on it (no whistles).  

The temple was nice enough, nothing too spectacular. One god looked like he was going to give us a knuckle sandwich. Some bare butt statues prayed for money over a mucky pond full of fat carp. 

I had imagined a more pastoral setting for our path to enlightenment, but it turns out the path to enlightenment goes along a noisy highway for the most part. The temples were only about a mile or so apart, but those miles add up, especially in the heat and humidity. 

We finally got off the main road and more into the farming area, with tiny rice fields, onions drying under carports, and tissue trees. Tissue paper does grow on trees, apparently, and it helps protect the fruit from something (maybe sunburn?). I can see why it costs $2 for an apple here. There were a couple of little shrines tucked away in between the main temples. There would be these huge staircases with hundreds of steps promising something spectacular on top (otherwise why would they build all those stairs), but when you got to the top it would be some abandoned old shack of a shrine. I like the shrines, though. They are part of the Shinto religion, which was the original religion of Japan, which saw nature as sacred. So you will find big trees there with ropes around them and other sacred natural things, like big rocks.

Finally, between temples three and four, we found ourselves on a path through the forest. Japan's forest is incredibly green, with moss growing over everything, vines covering trees, and everything intertwining into one thick fabric of vegetation. Neglected houses are are soon overtaken by their gardens and returned to nature. Birds like tree sparrows and the barn swallows in the picture here nest over doorways. (Notice the swallow dropping catcher.) Along the path, there were little statues and carved stone markers to show us the way.

Although these temples weren't as spectacular as the ones in Kyoto for example, they weren't overrun with tourists either. We could do things that they don't let you do in Kyoto, like ring the big bells. They have these huge bells at temples, with logs suspended with ropes for ramming them. In Kyoto, they're all tied up so that you can't ring them, but here we rang them all. 

The fifth temple was the most impressive of the big five that we made it to that day. They had a nice collection of statues that were supposed to represent the ancestors of everyone in the world, or something like that, according to Masami's explanation. Some people still take two months to walk the 1400 km between the 88 temples, some drive in air conditioned comfort, some take the bus. We saw one guy with his bike loaded up for touring. But five temples was enough enlightenment for us for one day, so we'll have to go back to do the other 83.