Ryōzen-ji (Temple 1) to Shōzan-ji (Temple 12)
Awakening
- Distance
- 53 km
- Climb
- 1,200 m up, 500 m down
- Ground
- 15 to 700 m
- Time
- 12 to 16 hours
- Difficulty
- hard
- Underfoot
- paved, mountain, forest
Where this day sits on the Shikoku 88
Above, the highest and lowest ground of each of its 10 stages. Below, the word each day is given.
From open-pilgrimages: each stage's highest and lowest ground and its interior theme.
The day
The first phase of the pilgrimage: Hosshin no Dōjō — the Place of Awakening. Tokushima prefecture is where you learn what this pilgrimage will ask of you. The first eleven temples come quickly, close together, giving you confidence. Then Temple 12 — Shōzan-ji, the 'Burning Mountain Temple' — announces the price. The climb is brutal and you are not ready for it. This is the design.
What pilgrims often meet here
- Excitement and nervousness at Temple 1
- Buying the white jacket and staff, feeling both foolish and sacred
- Physical shock at the climb to Temple 12
- First encounter with osettai from a stranger
- Reading 'Dōgyō Ninin' — we two, walking together — on the sedge hat for the first time
What awakened in you when you decided to walk?
The ground
Begins flat through the Yoshino River plain. The climb to Temple 12 (Shōzan-ji) at 700m is one of the hardest on the entire pilgrimage — the first major 'trial by fire'.
The light
Sunrise and sunset in Ryōzen-ji (Temple 1) depend on the day you walk.
Walk it with Pilgrim
Pilgrim walks the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage in parts, one day at a time in Honor mode, with each day's own morning words and its own question at the end. Its days are cut more finely than the stages here, so this stretch falls across 2 days in the app:
- Awa, day 1 Ryōzen-ji (Temple 1) to Kirihata-ji (Temple 10)
- Awa, day 2 Kirihata-ji (Temple 10) to Sudachi-an
Each opens that day in Pilgrim, or shows it with where to get the app.