Tuesday, October 23rd, 2001
See here for the distances between temples
The Shikoku Pilgrimage
|
Cape Muroto
A great day. It was blue and beautiful, just as I'd hoped for. Today's only disappointment (any day with only one is a great day) was that I missed a bus by five minutes; the next bus was an hour and fifteen minutes after that, so I didn't get to Number 26 today. That means a long bus ride tomorrow, too. Oh, well. Shoganai.
A priest told Oliver Statler, "Muroto sticks out like a hook and it catches trouble..."
Then the priest added, "But all that aside, this place is sacred because it was here that the young Daishi set his life's course."
As mentioned back at Number 21, here is where the young man named Mao finally achieved satori, enlightenment, and took a priestly name, "Kukai." This means "sky-sea," a natural sort of name considering the surroundings. (It was decades after his death that the Imperial court granted him the title Kobo Daishi--"the great teacher who spreads the teachings widely"--or something like that.)
He meditated in a cave. Or some caves. Statler places them down on the coast, among the banyans; Ed Readicker-Henderson goes with the modern signs, and accepts the cave shown here, a few meters up the trail from the coast to the temple. (I'm not sure why part of the rock is painted red.)
"The" cave's mouth
Inside "the" cave
Where it happened is immaterial (though I took a stone from this cave as a keep sake); that it happened changes everything. Without that achievement, he would not have become the man he did.
Listen: Joseph Campbell distinguishes the shaman from the priest. The priest is a social functionary, a person given power by a society to do things for that society. A shaman is an individual who has made contact, who has re-connected, with the source. We call them mystics, or--sometimes--saints, though some "official" saints were also merely good administrators.
This is one key to why a "mere human being" can be literally worshiped by so many Japanese--and me, as I pray in front of the Daishido at each temple. When a Hindu greets another with the Namaste gesture, he is greeting the god within that person. At Murotomisaki, perhaps in the very cave where I sat today, the boy Mao at the age of 19 became such a god.
Climbing on up the trail, one reaches the proper entrance to the temple--at the opposite end of the compound from where car and bus henro enter.
Temple #24: Hotsumisaki-ji (最御崎寺)
|
Well, most of the tale of this temple has been told with the telling of the Daishi's enlightenment. But there were still a few surprises in store.
Tearing myself away from this beautiful place, I began the walk toward Number 25. Here are a couple of views from the steep car road that now covers the old pilgrim trail.
---GALLERY---
Temple #25: Shinsho-ji (津照寺)
|
Number 25 is what Statler refers to simply as "The Port Temple." And rightly so, as it's near the modern Muroto Port, which is probably the ancient Muroto Port. This is a place, as Statler points out, where women come to pray for the safety of their men at sea--or the repose of their souls if they're beyond any other help.
Peculiarly, the Daishido is at the base of the compound. Then a long flight of stairs leads through a very nautical Niomon (Two Kings Gate) up to a stucco, very SoCal-looking hondo. You can see all of these in the Gallery below.
And now, for a charming story: In 1601--just 400 years ago--a ship was being battered in a storm. The priest on board took the wheel and sailed the ship safely in to port. But when they docked, he was nowhere to be found. As usual, they went up to the temple to give thanks to the Jizo--patron of travelers--for their safe arrival. And he was all wet with sea water!
This figure, carved by the Daishi in 807, is called the Kajitori Jizo, or "Helmsman Jizo." (I like the Bishop's quaint translation: "The Jizo of Rowing a Boat.") The hondo is filled with figures of a Jizo holding a wheel, given by patrons from all over Japan.
---GALLERY---
That's it. Tomorrow I return to the jumping off point to Number 26. The temples in Kochi are pretty tough to get to, as train and bus access is limited. Walking between them--usually 4 to 9 kilometers--is quite feasible, but getting to the starting point and back from the end of the walk can be tough! Stay tuned.
| ← Previous Day | Back to Shikoku Pilgrimage Guide | Next Day → |
Posted October 12, 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment