Here is a new and excellent article on the Shikoku 88 Buddhist Temple Pilgrimage:
Very intelligently written, and a beautiful testament to a mother and daughter life on the Shikoku Pilgrimage. I was going to write “experience” or “journey”, but that sounds too lightweight for what these two women have done over the years. Professor Ludvik and her mother have walked the pilgrimage more than a dozen times, not like this chucklehead who only did it by bus, and that was on the weekends over the course of a year.
There are some serious people who come to walk the paths of Kukai, and I am absolutely fascinated by their stories. I am tempted to pledge that I too will one day do it on foot, but such promises ought not be made lightly. Walking the pilgrimage and enduring that kind of suffering is no easy matter.
I might do it on motorcycle though…
Thank you Dr. Ludvik for the great article, and the beautiful photography within. The writing is excellent. By all means, please read the article to see how a serious ohenro gets it done.
Taken from the Kyoto Journal article, Dr. Ludvik’s bio:
CATHERINE LUDVIK obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto and teaches Japanese religion, visual arts, and culture at the Stanford Program in Kyoto, Doshisha University, and Kyoto Sangyo University. Spanning Indian and Japanese religions and their visual arts, her research interests focus on the metamorphoses of the originally Indian goddess Sarasvatī/Benzaiten in the texts, images and rituals of Japan (see KJ62), as well as on the circumambulating practice (sennichi kaihōgyō) of the monks of Mt. Hiei and the Shikoku Henro pilgrimage.
