Japan (October 2018): Fifteen Days in
Shikoku
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With an area
of 18,800sq.km (roughly 225km in length and 50 to 150km in width) and a
population of 3.8 million, Shikoku is by far the smallest of the main Japanese
islands, behind Honshu, Hokkaido and Kyushu. But it is much larger than
Okinawa, the fifth biggest. It lies between the Seto
Inland Sea and the Pacific Ocean, south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. A
large fraction of the island is rugged, mountainous, and sparsely populated.
Its highest peak is Ishizuchi-san (1982m) located
south of the city of Saijo. Unlike the other three
main Japanese islands it has no volcano. Its main rivers are the 196km-long Shimanto-gawa that flows mostly north to south to reach the
town of Nakamura on the southern coast and the 194km-long Yoshino-gawa that flows west to east to reach the city of
Tokushima. The island is administratively divided into four prefectures: Ehime,
Kagawa, Kochi and Tokushima. Their capitals are, respectively, Matsuyama,
Takamatsu, Kochi, and Tokushima.
Among its
visitors Shikoku is most famous for the Shikoku Henro
an approximatively 1,200km pilgrimage route around the island, which connects
88 temples (numbered #1 to #88) where the great Buddhist monk Kukai (known posthumously as Kobo Daishi) spent time and/or
trained during the 9th century. Nowadays the route often follows roads. Only
very few pilgrims go on foot; most use a combination of train, cars, buses, and
(sometimes) bicycles. But Shikoku has much more to offer, including
well-preserved castles, beautiful Shinto temples, old Kabuki theaters, historic
neighborhoods with merchant and samurai houses dating from the Edo (1603-1867)
and Meiji (1868-1912) periods, serene countryside...
On this trip
I visited the following places:
- Tokushima,
one of the four largest cities of Shikoku, at the northeastern tip of the
island,
- Hiwasa (home of Temple #23) and Mugi,
two small fishing ports on the Pacific Ocean,
- The
historical neighborhood/street known as Udatsu in the
town of Wakimachi,
- Kotohira, home of an important Shinto temple (Kompira-san), and Zentsu-ji, the
place where Kobo Taishi was born and home of Temple
#75,
- Matsuyama,
the largest city on the island, home of one of Japan′s finest surviving
castles (and of 8 Henro Temples),
- Uwajima, another castle town, with Temples #41 and #42
nearby,
- Ozu and Uchiko, two small towns
with historical neighborhoods, with a day hike to Ishidatami,
a village in the hills above Uchiko,
- Kikuma, a coastal town north of Matsuyama, home of Otomouma-no-Hashirikomi, a
colorful annual horse racing festival.
In total I
only visited seven Henro temples (#23, #41, #42, #49,
#50, #51, #75). I also skipped completely the Kochi
prefecture.
To see photos
of this trip click on the links below.
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