Sankaku-ji (Temple 65) to Unpen-ji (Temple 66)
Nirvana Begins
- Distance
- 19.3 km
- Climb
- 750 m up, 200 m down
- Ground
- 350 to 911 m
- Time
- 5 to 7 hours
- Difficulty
- hard
- Underfoot
- 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
Kagawa is the Nehan no Dōjō — the Place of Nirvana. Unpen-ji, the Cloud Monastery, sits at the highest point of the pilgrimage. You look out over the Seto Inland Sea and the final province stretches below you. Twenty-two temples remain. The end is visible. This is where a strange grief begins — the grief of completion, of a journey that is about to end.
What pilgrims often meet here
- Standing at the highest temple, seeing the end ahead
- Not wanting the pilgrimage to end
- An unexpected sense of loss mixed with accomplishment
What does it mean to approach the end of something you have given yourself to?
The ground
Transition from Ehime to Kagawa. Temple 66 (Unpen-ji) at 911m is the highest temple on the pilgrimage. Marks the entrance to the final province.
The light
Sunrise and sunset in Sankaku-ji (Temple 65) 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 one day in the app:
- Sanuki, day 1 Sankaku-ji (Temple 65) to Fujikawa Ryokan
Each opens that day in Pilgrim, or shows it with where to get the app.