Pilgrimages of Japan

Japonista Dictionary › Ideas and practice

Japan is crossed by pilgrimage routes that link temples into great circuits. Pilgrims walk, or today often drive, from temple to temple, chanting at each and collecting a written stamp as a record. The practice gives a living reason for many of the objects collectors treasure, from stamp scrolls to pilgrims' staffs.

The great circuits

Together, Saikoku, Bandō and Chichibu make up the Hundred Kannon of Japan. The ancient routes of Kumano, on the Kii peninsula, form another great pilgrimage network.

Why thirty-three

The Lotus Sutra says that Kannon appears in thirty-three forms to save beings, so the Kannon pilgrimages have thirty-three temples. Chichibu added a thirty-fourth to complete the hundred.

The pilgrim's equipment

• White robe and sedge hat. White is the colour of death and purity; the pilgrim travels as one ready to die.
• Staff. On Shikoku, the staff stands for Kōbō Daishi himself, who walks beside every pilgrim.
• Stamp book, nōkyōchō. At each temple a priest writes the temple's name and the deity in ink and adds red seals.
• Stamp scroll. Some pilgrims collect the stamps on a hanging scroll, which becomes an heirloom or is placed in the coffin.

Collecting notes

• Completed stamp books and scrolls from the Edo and Meiji periods are moving documents of individual journeys, and are collected as calligraphy.
• Kannon figures and prints sold at pilgrimage temples form a large and varied field.

In the collection

Browse Kannon figures and read Goshuin, omamori and ema. Our collector concierge can search Japan for pilgrimage objects.

See also

• The Forms of Kannon
• Gongen
• Shugendō