On the Establishment of Imitative Pilgrimage Places in Shôdoshima Is., Kagawa Prefecture

Abstract

In Japan there have been many utsushi-reijo (imitative pilgrimage courses) patterned after Shikoku-hachijuhakkasho-reijo (Shikoku's 88 pilgrimage sites) and they are called shin-shikoku (‘new shikoku’pilgrimage courses) or mini-shikoku (miniature shikoku pilgrimage courses). These shin-shikoku can be regarded as pilgrim courses in which the Honshikoku (Shikoku pilgrimage course) model spread to various parts of the country and were transformed under local conditions. Meanwhile shin-shikoku have been transformed historically since their establishment. In this paper the author focuses on the former regional transformation.The area of the case study is Shodoshima-hachijuhakkasho-reijo (Shodoshima's 88 pilgrimage sites) on Shodoshima Island in Kagawa Prefecture. The procedure is first to compare Shima-shikoku (the Shodoshima course) with Hon-shikoku at the time of its establishment and find out what was imitated; next to determine how points differing from Hon-shikoku originated in Shima-shikoku. Results are as follows:1. Similarities between Shima-shikoku and Hon-shikoku are that fudasho (each pilgrim place) were placed at the periphery of the island so that pilgrims could go around it, and the direction of numbering from 1 to 88 was clockwise.2. Fudasho in Shima-shikoku included all the Shingon-shu (Shingon sect of Buddhism) temples in Shodoshima Island and all the highest-status shrines which later became gosha (district shrines). The rests were selected from priests' meeting halls, oku-no-in (inner temples), wayside small temples, small temples at cemeteries, historic small temples, small temples at strange site features, and so on.3. Fudasho in Shima-shikoku were placed in every village in Shodoshima. The number 1 is supposed to have been assigned to the nearest fudasho to Koyasan-Temple.Historical transformations include allocations of fudasho, changes of fudasho-numbers, rise and fall of bangai-fudasho (extra pilgrimage places) and so forth. Even during these transformations Shima-shikoku have tended to copy Hon-shikoku in that the former have adopted the sekisho (spritual barrier to sinners) found in the latter at an earler time.