Last night, I was the only person staying at this temple. Apparently, if one doesn’t book one’s temple stay the day before, one is S.O.L. (Or maybe it is just this temple)
As I’m not travelling between temples, this might be a good time to introduce Kobo Daishi and the Shikoku Henro.
Kobo Daishi is the honorary name of Kukai (a Buddhist Patriarch of Shingon Buddhism). His is accredited to have done many great deeds around Shikoku and opened up a School of Arts and Sciences (Shugei shui-in) in Kyoto.
There isn’t much in terms of actual historical evidence that Kukai did all the things he is accredited for – not sure where one would find evidence of confining a large pyromaniac serpent in a dragon’s cave – how do you know it is a dragon’s cave? (Obviously the pyromaniac serpent is real).
However, today, people travel the Henro (usually in a clockwise direction) around the island. One does not have to start from Temple 1, however, most people do. One does not have to walk the Henro, either. Kobo Daishi walked it, but that is because he lived from 774 – 835 and the only way for a travelling ascetic to get around at the time was on foot (if trains and automobiles were around back then, I’m pretty sure he would have used them). Nowadays, most people travel by car/microbus. If one does the henro, and is buried with the Nokyocho (pilgrimage book) with the stamps, one can go straight to the pure land without having to be reborn.
There used to be large highway buses full of pilgrims (usually over the age of 60), but as I understand there are less pilgrims at the moment as people are still weary of COVID. March and April are usually the busiest months of the year. Luckily for me, but not the businesses that rely on the pilgrims, I have been able to find places to stay (This would not be the case in years before COVID.) The only time I struggled to find a reasonable place was the first night… which I found out was because Tokushima had a marathon race set for the that weekend. I have, however, seen a number of micro buses (7 passengers and a driver) on route and a handful of cars in the parking lots of the temples.
Hopefully, I have attached a link to an interactive Henro map here.
KotsuKotsuLife 