Prompted by Nick Teele’s account of reviving a 33 temple pilgrimage, a website reader from Denmark named Esben Andreasen has submitted an account of his own 13 temple pilgrimage to Kyoto. The piece below is an edited translation of his article which originally appeared in a Danish journal.

Esben’s first visit to Japan was in 1982 as a member of ‘The Japan Foundation Secondary School Educators Study Team’, a visit that started his craze for Japan. Since then he has visited Kyoto twenty times, his longest stay being half a year at Otani University studying Jodo shinshu (True Pure Land sect).

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Ninna-ji (photos by John Dougill)

ASPHALT PILGRIM IN KYOTO
by Esben Andreasen

My childhood public library smelled of old books and varnish. I remember I saw a folder saying: ”Plan Your Readings” and I wondered who the wise librarian was who wrote it? Is it at all possible to plan? Where to begin and where to end? Who to decide what interests me? And now, almost 70 years later I wonder if I have frittered away my life as a reader? Maybe I would have been a totally different person, if I had followed the librarian’s advice? I do not think I even read the folder.

Nowadays in Kyoto I have countless possibilities when it comes to visiting temples, and I can see that a plan is a helper, otherwise I grow dizzy. So instead of following sheer impulse, or visiting temples I have visited before, I need new inspiration and choose a website which offers a small pilgrimage to thirteen temples, each with a Buddha or a Bodhisattva, called Kyoto Jusan Butsu and start out as an asphalt pilgrim. The inspiration I get from Michael Pye’s Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage (Equinox Publishing 2015).

Pilgrimage in a city sounds easy, but I could have chosen something very much easier. 88 miniature temples visited in 2-3 hours is also a possibility, but I do not take the easy way.

To-ji pagoda

A few remarks on a practical nature. First, I do not walk all the way but use bus, subway and local trains. Still, my soles are very sore after a day’s walking, because I walk a lot. Secondly, I do not spend much time at each temple. My record is 10 minutes. Thirdly, the main obstacle is finding one’s way. I praise my smart phone, the GPS and Google Maps.

You must be patient and prepared for challenges and frustrations. At least two temples on the list were no longer part of the pilgrimage, but other temples had taken over. And it was hard to find which. At one temple I was told that yesterday it was open but not today. ”Come again, maybe you are lucky next time.” Some monks are a bit arrogant, especially at the popular and famous temples.

On the other hand you are met with great friendliness at more humble temples, where there are fewer tourists. Many important temples only rarely exhibit their age-old sculptures and even less famous sculptures of which you must not take photos. But that does not bother me too much, because – to use a worn-out expression – not the goal but the way is what counts, although it is not the prescribed aim. I may be meeting with a happy car-owner who dusts his fine Jaguar on a sunny morning with a broom of ostrich feathers! ”A real beauty!”, I tell him and he becomes very proud. Or I may pass by Kyoto station – much too big for the city – and stop, because a number of jazz big bands – mostly girls – are giving a resounding concert, one band after the other. Or I may pass a shrine where I see a couple of Western-looking faces in relief who turn out to be Edison and Hertz! Electric gods! Or I nay visit a temple for cats and another one for hogs on my way! It makes you wonder.

The difference between long and dusty pilgrimages like ”il camino” and city pilgrimage is striking. You walk for days in northern Spain, in your mind you have turned over your life till you get nauseous, and then you experience what it is to be empty. You have simply run out of mental effort, so why not simply put one foot down after the other and give yourself a rest?

An asphalt pilgrim has no rest. Watch out, all the time. Bicycles on the sidewalk are a danger, and even though the cyclist bears the responsibility, it is no fun being run over. And then constantly attend Google Maps not to lose your way. The GPS must have been invented by the Japanese.

Now, to the point. The above-mentioned website and Michael Pye’s book have the following temples:

  1. Chishaku-in (Fudo Myo-o)
  2. Seiryo-ji (Shaka)
  3. Reiun-in (Monju)
  4. Daikomyo-ji (Fugen)
  5. Daizen-ji (Rokujizo) (Jizo)
  6. Sennyu-ji (Mitera) (Miroku)
  7. Inabayakushi-ji (Byodo-ji) (Yakushi)
  8. Senbon Shakado (Daiho onji) (Kannon)
  9. Ninna-ji (Seishi)
  10. Hokongo-in (Amida)
  11. Hokan-ji (Yasaka no To) (Ashuku)
  12. To-ji (Kyu-ogokokuji) (Dainichi)
  13. Horin-ji (Kokuzo)

But the list needs revisions. Number 3 on the list in 2018 is Kaiko-ji and number 11 in 2019 is Zuishin-in. Who the divinities are is not clear.

But it is clear that the pilgrim meets the characteristic inclusiveness of Japanese religion, here Buddhism. The temples are mainly Shingon (Esoteric Buddhism), but also Jodo (Pure Land Buddhism) and Rinzai (Zen Buddhism). Members of all denominations have no qualms of conscience when they visit temples belonging to other sects. The borders are fluid and often the Japanese Buddhist does not know to which she/he belongs.

Reiun-in

The Kyoto Jusan Butsu pilgrimage is very new. According to Michael Pye it was set up in 1981, in imitation of a similar sequence in Osaka. The 13 stages reflect 13 memorial days on which to honour and pray for the soul of a departed family member: 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, 35th, 42nd, 49th, 100th  day, followed by 1st, 3rd, 7th, 13th and 33rd anniversary. During the first 49 days the departed soul is a hungry ghost (gaki) in need of rest and in a dangerous situation, which explains the frequent memorial days at the beginning. After that the intervals grow longer and longer. But to practically minded Japanese there is no need to visit the temples in this order or on the exact days. It is sufficient that you visit the temples when you can, think of the departed relative and contemplate your own life.

For a dedicated religious follower the transactions at the temples consist of three phases: When the pilgrim arrives he/she asks for permission to visit the temple, explaining the motivation for the visit to the chief monk or priest; then the act of devotion in front of the Buddha or Bodhisattva statues, consisting of a recitation (often the Heart Sutra) and a prayer or petition to the divinity (good health, success at work, family happiness – or similar wishes for this-worldly benefits (genze riyaku)); and finally the temple issues a documentation of the visit in the shape of a calligraphy which the pilgrim pays for and pastes into the pilgrimage book (nokyocho), a kind of ring binder. All in all, a quid pro quo situation.

As an (irreverent?) outsider I have enjoyed walking many kilometers, meeting people and thinking of the peculiarities of Japanese culture, but I did not intend to perform the transactions. Between the serious pilgrim and myself there is a great variety of behaviour. Still, I bought my nokyocho (1500 yen), and in the end I got 13 calligraphies (300 yen each).

Walking with a plan is perhaps not such a bad idea.

Esben’s nokyocho (courtesy Andreasen)