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Join PPSCV member Armando Lay on his pilgrimage to the “Shikoku 88 Temples” in Japan.

Armando is a Marketing Consultant and PPA Certified Professional Photographer.

Shikoku Island is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan.  The island has a mountainous landscape and is home to a historic Buddhist pilgrimage route that started in the eighteenth century called the “Shikoku 88 Temples”.  The name is derived from the 88 sacred temples along the circular route on the island where “Kukai” the Japanese monk that founded the esoteric “Shinghon” or mantra school of Buddhism had stayed or studied.

Pilgrims are said to be following the step of Kukai (known posthumously as Kobo Daishi) …  Each temple has been assigned a number and pilgrims will normally visit the temples sequentially in ascending or descending order and, as pilgrims traverse the island through each of the four prefectures it is said that the journey takes the pilgrims through the symbolic phases of “Awakening”, “Ascetic Training”, “Enlightenment” and “Nirvana”.

The journey is 1,200 kilometers long (745 miles) and is traditionally completed on foot.  Modern pilgrims are allowed to use other forms of transportation as needed.  To complete the pilgrimage, it is necessary to visit the official 88 temples of the pilgrimage. Many pilgrims begin or end their pilgrimage visiting the “Shinghon retreat” in Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture.