Shikoku A Walk in search of the Essential

By Paolo Calvino

The Shikoku pilgrimage is a fascinating walk: eighty-eight Buddhist temples to visit, following a circuit of over one thousand, two hundred kilometres; forty-five days of walking; with more than one thousand, two hundred years of history behind it. They call it O-henro-san.
“While walking across the Japanese island of Shikoku over a two month period, I became quite convinced by one thing: I had found the one place where my spirit felt at home. From that moment, whenever I need peace and quiet, I mentally retrace my steps across the island. This is why I thought I'd invite readers of Shikoku A Walk in search of the Essential, to explore this magical place, in the hope that someone, somewhere might discover that it is their spiritual home, too”, Paolo Calvino writes.
Shikoku is an otherwordly and ambivalent land: in Shikoku A Walk in search of the Essential, the author explains why go there, how and when the pilgrimage was created and developed, who the pilgrims were and are, and how they feel during the walk and at the end of it.
Useful information are provided, together with a list of free and cheap lodgings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paolo Calvino
• Release date: Feb 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463990681

Paolo Calvino

Paolo Calvino was born in 1969 in Turin, Italy, where he lives.At the age of six, he began browsing atlases and from then on he imagined a life of travelling. Up to now, his dreams have taken him to forty-nine countries of the world (fifty, if one is to include Kosovo). The first mode of transport he loved was by train, with which he has travelled many times throughout Northern Europe, the Balkans and Russia. A little before the age of forty he discovered how far one can actually go on foot: he has crossed northern Italy from national park to national park, completed the pilgrimage on the Japanese island of Shikoku, journeyed the Francigena Way, and followed the World War Two trails in southern Piedmont.For the Neos publishing house editions, he has published In guerra non andare. Un viaggio in Etiopia dalla memoria alla scoperta (Don't Go to War. A trip to Ethiopia, from remembrance to discovery, 2019) and he contributed four stories to the anthology series Pagine in viaggio (Travel Pages) from 2018 to 2021.

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Shikoku

A Walk in search of the Essential

by Paolo Calvino

translation from Italian to English by Jani Kahukiwa

Copyright 2021 Paolo Calvino

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Useful information

Pilgrimage to the eighty-eight temples

Shikoku, why go there?

Otherworldly Shikoku

Ambivalent Shikoku

Free and cheap lodging

About the author

Introduction

When I went to Shikoku in the spring of 2011, I had been in Japan for a few months. I had already started thinking that Japan in general was 'the place for me', especially after spending a few weeks in Kyoto. While walking across the island over that two month period, I became quite convinced by one thing: I had found the one place where my spirit felt at home. From that moment, whenever I need peace and quiet, I mentally retrace my steps across the island.

The year of 2020 forced us to spend long periods of time within the domestic walls of home, and never before has it been so necessary for our souls to understand where that spiritual home truly is, to know that we can go back to it at any given moment. This is why I thought I'd invite readers of Shikoku A Walk in search of the Essential, to explore this magical place, in the hope that someone, somewhere might discover that it is their spiritual home, too.

Useful information

The best internet site dedicated to the pilgrimage is www.shikokuhenrotrail.com

The indispensable guide, complete with maps is Shikoku Japan 88 Route Guide. To pick up a copy please see here: http://www.shikokuhenrotrail.com/shikoku/pilgrimagebooksGuidebooks.html

Pilgrimage to the eighty-eight temples

When I first became interested in a pilgrimage to Shikoku in December of 2010, I was fascinated by the numbers: eighty-eight Buddhist temples to visit,