The Shikoku pilgrimage

The presence of the land, for the landscape in Shikoku is not only beautiful, it is prayerful. The pilgrimage route is not an imposed or fleeting human path; it is an enduring one that the land invites us to travel. Mountains, trees, water—the natural world is inseparable from the human feet that touch the ground. With each step, the pilgrim arrives into an unfolding song.

To be a pilgrim is to set aside, for a while, worldly concerns. To do the daring thing in these days of media and in this age of clocks: taking your time in getting somewhere, or leaving time behind altogether. To travel to a place for the sake of the place and for the sake of the travel. To allow point A and point B to give way to possibility, to mystery. You are meant to allow the journey to do its work on you.

Shikoku Pilgrimage

Chapter	Title	Temple
I	Heart Sutra	–
II	No Beginning	01
III	To Worship a Mountain	12
IV	The Temple and the Field	34
V	I Am Called Sky	36
VI	The Legend of the Cave	45
VII	Crossings	–
VIII	Stone Steps	–
IX	Cherry Blossoms	–
X	The Circular Journey	65
XI	The Loss of the Unexpected	66
XII	Two Trees	75
XIII	The Legend of Emon Saburō	88