This is a page from my diary. My sketch shows the mountain trail with the altitude marked at various points. The little men are Ohenro-san who mark the location of the six Henro Korogashi Nansho. Henro, of course, refers to the Pilgrim who is traversing the trail. Korogashi means to roll. The nan of Nansho means dangerous and sho means place. Thus, these places are dangerous places where the Pilgrim may roll down the mountain.Each of these places is marked by signs along the trail and they mean what they say. They were places where I almost wished that I had mountain climbing gear. The stick with its attached bell were necessities here, giving another way to balance yourself. These places were all extremely steep and covered with wet, dead leaves making them a likely location for a good roll or maybe just a tumbling slide down the mountain. They were dangerous because at least one side had an essentially vertical drop that often went down for tens of meters before there were tree trunks to break the fall of a dropping Henro.
1 comment:
Yeah, this was a discovery I actually made yesterday, going from temple 20 to 21. Each of them is on top of a 1500 foot tall mountain, and going to in order to go up again was at least as demanding as going up in the first place. I was extremely aware that this would be an extremely bad place to take a tumble. Happily, I only fell once, on my ass, and not in a damaging way. I took the way down very slowly.
I was so happy to have made it up to Tairyuji (i.e. #21, "Fat Dragon Temple") that I gifted myself with a temple t-shirt, as well as a box for my incense and candles and a tin of mushroom tea. (I strongly recommend the "ropeway", i.e. cable car, down from the top of Tairyuji. The sell the mushroom tea in the ropeway station and will happily give you a cup to sample. Not to be missed!)
I completed my little ikkoku-mairi today with my visit to temple 23! Yatta! I'm back in Tokushima-shi now, about to head to the onsen for a good soak, with aching calves and a couple of blisters, but happy and with a sense of achievement.
I met some very interesting people along the way including a Mr. Kimura who is now doing his _53rd_ pilgimage, this time "gyaku" (i.e. counterclockwise). Rather than a kongo-tsue, he carried a wonderful shakujo, a Buddhist priest's staff, like the one Kobo Daishi is always shown holding.
A terrific experience, all in all! I'm very happy I undertook it. I'd say "Hosshin no Dojo" definitely awakened my faith!
Ki o tsukete! Ganbatte kudasai! I'll be continuing to read with interest!
Post a Comment