I walked Shodosima 88 in the fall of 2016. After my first pilgrimage, the Shikoku 88, in the fall of 2015, I got hooked on long-distance walking along historical trails and visiting old temples and shrines.
Following my visit to Koyasan immediately after completing the Shikoku 88 pilgrimage (during this pilgrimage, I also visited all 20 Shikoku Bekkaku temples), I continued walking along the Shingon 18 head temples pilgrimage.
Half a year later, I walked the Kumano Kodo Kohechi and Nakahechi routes, saving the Ohechi and Iseji routes for 2017.
Each time, I had to take 10 to 14 days off from work, and it was hard for me to get so many days off frequently. I tried to look for shorter pilgrimages that I could finish in a week or so, and Shodoshima 88 popped up. Thankfully, I had already moved to Tokushima, and driving to Takamatsu port for the ferry to the island took only two hours.
The main priest-monk of T54, Housho-in took the top photo of this article. He was inside the stamp office, and we started chatting while he was handwriting the stamp in my book. Then, he kindly offered a quick guided tour around the vast ancient shinpaku juniper tree, which is actually the biggest juniper tree in Japan and has lived for more than 1500 years.
The trunk of the tree has many weird-looking burs. He told me some parts of the tree look like holy animals, and he pointed each one out for me: elephant, dragon, turtle, and so on…
Another monk I met at T60, Goutokutsu, took my photo for me. He was one of the most memorable people in my life. He said he was in his early 90s then, but the way he talked and his quick response in our conversation didn’t make me believe it. He was very nice and calm, and his face shone with curiosity.
As far as I remember, he said he was a college student when WWII ended. He then became a businessman travelling around the world. After his retirement, he became a monk and went to graduate school. He was in his 80s when he completed a doctoral course at a university! He liked taking pictures, so he took my camera and told me to stand by the seaside Jizo-bosatsu statue. “See? I am a good photographer. You two are wearing the same hat.”
The Japanese sometimes describe someone so nice that he may have reached a holy level, or probably Buddha level, as “he has a halo of light on the back of his head.” Just standing there, I felt a big halo of light brightened his entire body.
Most temples offering stamps seemed to be run only by a residential monk and his family. So, I found monks waiting for pilgrims at almost every stamp office. They all were very nice and friendly and usually started small talk with me, probably out of curiosity. Just like during my Shikoku 88 walk and other pilgrimages, being a woman, walking by herself alone has a big benefit: more chances to be talked to by the locals and temple staff.
Even at a temple stamp office, which had a note saying, “We are sorry that our stamp office staff is stepping out right now,” on the counter, I was greeted by this friendly, smiling guy who blinked his eyes as soon as he saw me.
Getting stamps
Almost two-thirds of Shodoshima’s 88 temples are not staffed all the time. Because of that, the most commonly used stamp book is the one that already has calligraphy parts printed on each temple’s page, and all you have to do is get red stamps on it by temple staff at bigger temples or sometimes by yourself.
I wanted to have mine like Shikoku 88’s stamp book, so I bought the special Shodoshima 88 stamp book, which is only available at the head temple. You must pay 150 yen more for each temple to have a hand-written stamp. 150 multiplied by 88 already makes a huge difference for budget pilgrims. Besides, there is a high chance that you may find no one at the stamp offices at the temples that take care of offering stamps for their own temple and other nearby unstaffed temples.
However, luck is usually with me when it comes to pilgrimages. I had no problem getting hand-written stamps at all 30 temples. Probably because it was fall pilgrim season, monks were at almost all temples’ stamp offices.
At one or two temples, the stamp office was closed, but instead, there were ready-made stamps on pieces of paper that I could pick up. I left money in the designated box. At one temple, the monk was out, but his wife was there. She took my stamp book and told me to go to the next temple. As soon as the monk came home and wrote my stamp book, she drove to chase me and gave my stamp book back to me.
People are usually very surprised when I tell them I got all hand-written stamps very easily without waiting a long time or returning to the temples another time. They all said I was extremely lucky. So, I guess it should be safer to get the most commonly used regular stamp book for pilgrims who don’t have time for extra temple visiting, especially for walkers.
Is Shodoshima 88 easier?
I sometimes encountered other pilgrims at the temples. Most were small groups of friends or families, and they all visited temples by car. I didn’t see the bus tours of pilgrims while I was walking.
Shodoshima seems to be quite a popular destination for bikers, and I actually saw some non-pilgrim bikers, especially when walking along wider coast roads.
I never saw any other walking pilgrims or hikers on the natural trails. The only individual pilgrim I saw at T18, Sekimondo, was actually a local islander who said he often came to this temple for a walk. I believe he said he was early 90-something (yes, again) then. He was almost hopping up and running down the stairs with no problem!
Even at the lodgings where I stayed, I didn’t really see many other guests. But I am sure I would have seen many more people if that was the Japanese vacation season. I also met a mother and her young daughter inside the onsen right by Olive Park. They were from Tottori prefecture and came to Shodoshima many times a year for pilgrimage. The friendly mom told me her faithful grandma loved the Shodoshima 88 pilgrimage, so they often come all the way to this island since she was little. Shodoshima 88 has not yet been as well-known as Shikoku 88, but it does seem to have quite a few hard-core fans who have supported this small island’s pilgrimage throughout history.
So, is the Shodoshima 88 pilgrimage easier compared to Shikoku 88? I have been asked this question many times. I was even asked this on the ferry to return to Takamatsu after I completed walking all 88 temples. Everybody seems to have some reasoning why they would want to try walking Shodoshima 88 instead of Shikoku 88. 150 km vs. 1200km. 7 to 10 days vs. 40 to 60 days. The much shorter distance should be easy!
Also, some people assume that walking Shodoshima 88 may be a good pre-training for walking all Shikoku 88.
Well, I usually say “NO” to that question.
Even as a person who had walked the entire Shikoku 88 plus Bekkaku 20, as well as Shingon 18 head temple pilgrimage and 4 out of a total 6 trails of Kumano Kodo, Shodoshima 88 was quite tough. To those who have not walked Shikoku 88 but are thinking about doing Shodoshima 88 first, I always suggest walking Shikoku 88 first.
Imagine picking up all kinds of hard and tough parts from my 50 days of walking in Shikoku 88 and condensing them into seven days of walking on this small island. That’s Shodoshima 88!
The trails are well-maintained, and there are enough signs, but I am worried that it would be a bit hard to find and read them for a total beginner who hasn’t gotten used to how to find them in Shikoku 88. Also, as David described in his blog posts, there are fewer shops and lodgings, fewer local people you would pass by, and a more complicated stamp system that would be challenging for beginners.
The trails throughout the mountains were quite steep in Shodoshima. There are no long-distance mountain trail parts like Shikoku 88’s infamous die-hard trails to Temple 12—shorter but steeper. Also, the trails to and from those rocky mountain temples create a natural obstacle course. I actually really liked and enjoyed them. But I won’t lie—it was seriously scary to walk down THIS in the rain.
Some other landmarks along the pilgrim trail
Though David’s blog posts covered most of the tourist attractions along the pilgrimage trails, I would like to introduce some other places I happened to find during my walk that he didn’t mention. This is probably because I love natural landmarks with rocks and stones.
Nagasaki Shishigaki
Shishigaki are man-made walls made from soil and stones to prevent wild boars from eating farm products. They are found in many parts of Shodoshima and were built in the late 18th century. Nagasaki Shishigaki is located on the old pilgrim trail to T28, Yakushi-dou.
After a short walk around the mud wall, you can reach a spectacular viewpoint, from which you can see the small peninsula on the other side of the sea, where T6 is located.
Tengu-iwa quarry park
Shodoshima is a rocky mountain island. Several old quarry sites have been turned into natural parks around the island. In the mid-17th century, giant rocks from these quarries were shipped to Osaka to rebuild Osaka Castle’s stone walls.
When walking the east side of the island, you will see some old quarries along the pilgrimage route between Temple 86, Atehama-an, and 87, Kaitei-an. Tengu-iwa quarry park is one of them, closer to T87.
Gigantic stones were scattered in the woods, and a walking path was maintained to look around them.
Ikeda Saziki (outdoor theatre)
Right near T33, Chousho-ji, you will find these many-tiered walls, and you may think these are the remains of old castle walls. At 18m to the top and 80m wide, Ishida Saziki was built to serve as a seating area for people who came to see the nearby Shinto shrine’s festivals. Even today, local people still use this outdoor theatre for festivals and events.
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