The Shikoku Pilgrimage (四国遍路) 6

Shikoku Pilgrimage 2022, Day 6
Visited temples; Kenjiji, T13, 14, 15, and 16
Extra mountain trails; Former Ichinomiya castle ruins, Awa ancient history park, Mt. Kinobeyama to Mt. Chausuyama
As dawn broke, we literally ran away from the awful lodge early in the morning.
I was rather thankful that we didn’t have to go through any check-out procedure or any sorts of contact with the elder lodge keeper.
Breathing the morning fresh air so deeply into our lungs, we came to nearby vending machines for hot coffee (for me) and hot mill tea (for Erik.) Another beautiful morning, leave the bad experience behind and let’s start walking.
We walked up on a pilgrimage route to Kenjiji Temple, the okunoin of T13. First part was paved road walking but soon, a stone signpost indicated the narrow natural path branching out from the road as the trail to Konjiji. The path first passed through an small orchard for a moment, but the rest of 1.5 km long mountain trail were through quiet mountain tree forests.
Emerging onto the paved forest road for cars to the temple, we heard a car driving up this steep road in a quite fast speed. As the car was hastily passing by us, we saw the driver was the assistant priest monk of Konjiji. He was one of the monks I wanted to see in person again to say hi since he supported our work this past two years. I had sent him message before to let him know we were coming today but not sure if he was available as Golden Week is one of their busiest time.
When we got to the temple parking, he was just getting out of the car and waved at us. He told us that he had an appointment for giving waterfall ritual and was a bit late, and he dashed into the temple.
As we were looking around the temple, a good chanting voice started sounding from the main hall. Through the window glass, we saw the monk was chanting while hitting a drum for the two young ladies who should be doing the waterfall ritual soon.
They soon came out to go down to the waterfall and he asked if we were there for day-hiking or something. Apparently, he missed to check my message and he just remembered we were walking Shikoku pilgrimage now. Well, my message was to let him know we were coming and I would like to see him. Now, even if it was coincident, we were seeing each other actually, so all is well in the end.
After they disappeared into the mountain trail to the waterfall, we waited a bit before we started walking down too. We didn’t want to run into their preparation for waterfall ritual, in other words, changing cloths behind rocks.
The two ladies seemed regulars for waterfall ritual here and they got to the waterfall quite fast via the rough rocky trail with a cliff part you have to use chains to go down. When we got to the waterfall, they were already in the middle of doing waterfall ritual and chanting heart sutra under the waterfall calmly falling onto their heads and shoulders.
We quietly took a sideway to go around the waterfall not to interrupt them and waited a bit till they finished. The monk came to talk to us again and meanwhile the ladies quickly walked back to the temple as if they do so always.
Anyone can try the waterfall ritual (Taki-gyo 滝行) at Konjiji with advance booking. The monk gives you instructions to do the ritual in proper way and does the ritual with you. According to his facebook, surprisingly many people in all ages come to do it throughout the year (yes, even in the middle of winter snow.)
Once we got back on the ground from Konjiji mountain, T13 was not so far away. But on the way temple, we have to drop by an important place, the only seven-eleven in the area. Since the morning, we had not eaten anything yet.
Arriving at T13, we asked the stamp office staff for the main priest monk. He was the youngest main priest monk of all 88 temples, only 24 years old. He grew up in the US since he was 9 until he finished collage, so he is a native English speaker. The last time I had chat with him here was before COVID and he was still in college.
Since he came back to Japan and inherited the main priest position from his deceased father and his mother who became a nun to serve for the temple until the boy grew up old enough to be the main priest monk, he has been working hard to do something new. I purchased a T-shirts of his original brand “Esoteric Kou.” He was also a competition body builder back in the US and started a personal training gym.
Yes, you can actually take a private workout session here at T13 gym and he will be your trainer. You also get free protein shake and nutrition advise at the session.
We left T13 and walked though Ichinomiya shrines right across the drive road. T13 and this shrine used to be in the same place and it is a good example Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan used to be not completely separated like they are today. Many pilgrims would not pay attention so much about the small mountain behind the shrine and hurry to the next temple. But this small mountain is a former castle site and some ruins and stone walls were still there. We walked around the castle mountain before heading to T14.
To T14 and T15, we walked along the regular pilgrimage route. T15 main hall was under big maintenance just before COVID so a lot of international pilgrims who came to walk Shikoku in 2019 and early 2020 may wonder if the construction has completed or not. It was done already and T15 main hall was standing beautifully without any covers. We also paid 300 yen each to enter the stone Japanese garden at both side of the temple main hall.
The pilgrimage route between T15 and T16 is one of not so popular ones among international pilgrims, as it is all road walking along the busy 4 lane road and complicated streets through residential area. In general, after reaching T14, you are walking in the busy city part of Tokushima until you get to T18.
So, how to make walking in this part a little bit more interesting? After T15, pilgrims usually walk to north-east to T16, but we went to the opposite direction to Awa ancient history park located at the bottom of Mt. Kinobeyama.
Yesterday we walked a part of Yamanami Walk trail to go to B2. If we kept going further on the trail, we would reach to this Mt. Kinobeyama and go down to the history park. Another ridge line of Mt. Kinobeyama goes to the north and connects much lower Mt. Chausuyama and this is a popular light hiking route for the locals. We came out from the mountain from the trailhead near an ancient nun temple ruin site, which is located in the only short distance away from T16. So, this was how we minimized the road walking part between T15 and 16.
We ended today’s walk at Ko station, as the train can take us to Tokushima station area within 15 minutes and it was much easier to find a room for us to stay for multiple nights there. We will come back tomorrow without heavy backpack to walk only T17 and Jizo-goe pass.