Dempster - Neon pilgrim: a memoir of walking Japans henro michi

First published in 2009 by Aduki Independent Press

This edition published in 2017 by Ventura Press

PO Box 780, Edgecliff NSW 2027 Australia

www.venturapress.com.au

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Copyright Lisa Dempster 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any other information storage retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Author: Dempster, Lisa

Title: Neon Pilgrim / by Lisa Dempster

Buddhist pilgrims and pilgrimages--Japan--Shikoku Region.

Shikoku Region (Japan)--Description and travel.

Shikoku Region (Japan)--Religious life and customs.

ISBN: 978-1-925384-95-6 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-925183-88-7 (ebook)

Cover design: Design by Committee

Internal design: Design by Committee and Working Type

The paper in this book is FSC certified. FSC promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the worlds forests.

AWAKENING

STARTING OUT

In a budget rykan in Tokushima, I sat in a small tatami-laid room. I couldnt believe it was actually happening. Tomorrow I would set out on the 88 Temple Pilgrimage, an arduous 1200-kilometre hike. Against many odds, Id managed to scrape together some money, get to Japan and get to the starting line. My bravado, however, hadnt made the trip with me.

I was terrified.

The vending machine on my floor at the rykan was calling my name and I made several trips to buy mid-sized Asahi Super Dry beer, which I knocked back at high speed. I couldnt contemplate the enormity of what lay ahead. Instead I wondered, how did I get here?

When I was a teenager I went to Japan. As an exchange student, I spent a culture-shocked year living and attending school in Kochi, a rural city on the smallest of the four main islands, Shikoku. In the 1990s, foreign tourists rarely went to Shikoku, and with good reason: theres not much to do there. And so, although I had an enormous guidebook to Japan, the entries for Shikoku and Kochi occupied a few miserable pages in my Lonely Planet, and for a fifteen-year-old were fairly lacklustre in the excitement department. Except for one small box of text:

O-henro-san (pilgrims) have been walking clockwise around Shikoku for some 1200 years. They follow in the footsteps of the great Buddhist Saint Kukai (AD 774835), who achieved enlightenment on the same journey The walk is an arduous task, no less than 1200km around the island and 88 temples in all

I knew nothing about Buddhism, nothing about the history of religious pilgrimage and nothing about hiking, but my imagination was ignited. And no wonder: the story of the 88 Temple Pilgrimage the henro michi is a great one.

The pilgrimage exists to venerate Kb Daishi, a ninth century Buddhist monk and one of the most important figures in Japanese history. Kukai, as he was known during his lifetime, introduced Shingon Buddhism to Japan, a move that changed the main religion in the country from Shinto to Buddhism. He built many temples and religious centres, including the immense Mount Koya temple complex outside of Osaka, assisted countless towns to build necessary infrastructure, like irrigation ponds, and opened schools to include all children, not just those of aristocrats.

A saint in the minds of Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, it is almost impossible to exaggerate the impact this one monk had on Japanese society. A scholar, priest, teacher, administrator and enlightened Buddhist monk, he is a cultural icon and hero, still revered by Japanese people today.

And one of the many ways in which Japanese society continues to pay homage to Kb Daishi is to undertake a pilgrimage on the island of his birth, Shikoku. The eighty-eight temples included on the henro michi literally, the pilgrims road were chosen for their importance in the history of Kb Daishi. These temples make up just a handful of all the temples on the island of Shikoku, and are spread around the 1200-kilometre circumference of the island.

Of the eighty-eight temples, sixty-one are located in the mountains and twenty-seven are on the plain near the coast. Of the sixty-one temples located in the mountains, twenty-five are located at or near the top of their mountain, with the highest situated at an elevation of 1000 metres. In some areas, the temples are close together and its possible to visit several in one day. In other, more rural areas, it can take up to three days to walk between temples.

The toughness of undertaking the henro michi cannot be underestimated. And the hiking all comes back to Kb Daishi. It is always about the Daishi. Pilgrims believe that his spirit still lives in Shikoku, and that by travelling the pilgrimage they will be walking in his presence. To venerate him, yes, but also to seek some kind of fortune in their own lives.

As a teenager, I would occasionally see these pilgrims, these henro, cutting a figure through town. With their white robes, wooden religious staffs and well-worn backpacks they were delightfully foreign and represented all the romance and adventure that I, as a fifteen-year-old, was longing to have.

The pilgrimage was, in my mind, adventure travel on an epic scale. It fit with my world view of myself as a dusty, travel-worn explorer well, I would be one day. I made the decision to return to Japan to walk the henro michi, one way or another, as soon as humanly possible.

Fast-forward thirteen years. My life was vastly different to what I pictured it would be. Severely depressed, socially withdrawn, overweight, on the dole and living with my mum I was twenty-eight and miserable.

And then, completely by chance, the henro michi came back into my life. In a small community library in Kangaroo Flat I stumbled across the iconic text Japanese Pilgrimage by Oliver Statler, the book on the pilgrimage.

Halfway through, Statler recounts the story of a suicidal lady who decided to walk the henro michi with her husband or die trying. While they knew the risk of her death in their attempt, it was their only hope left. Starting at Temple 1, they walked a short distance each day, and for several days it was agonising for both of them. But they prayed as they walked, and over time she was strengthened and the walk became easier. When she reached Temple 88 she was cured. The nature of the pilgrimage the physical exercise, the dwelling in the mountains and nature, the dogged perseverance and discipline was necessary to their miracle, but without their faith and their prayer a cure could not have happened.

I put the book down, stunned. I didnt need any clearer sign. I didnt even need to finish the book. I was hooked.

I decided then and there to go back to Japan as soon as I could, to finally fulfil the promise I had made to myself as a fifteen-year-old: I would walk the