But as a friend told me, it seems imbued with mystery. Today, Mount Kōya remains a sacred place where pilgrims visit either before or after undertaking their pilgrimage in Shikoku. The Pilgrimage. When one reaches one of these special years, certain special religious practices need to be performed to guard against bad luck and other potential misfortunes. It takes about two hours by ship to get there. By walking the entire pilgrimage, you obtain absolution and redemption from your sins and by the time you finish you have cleansed yourself — maybe even attained enlightenment. Although the establishment of the Shikoku Pilgrimage is widely accredited to Kūkai, its development and popularity originate from the collective efforts of various historical figures. With that, he left and returned no more. O-henro is the journey to the 88 sacred sites of Shikoku taken by the buddhist monk *Kukai 1200 years ago. It was also infested with pirates. History and Tradition. At the age of 15 he moved to the capital to study, where he came under the influence of a Buddhist priest. Today, Kūkai lives on as a prominent figure and forefather of Shingon Buddhist, a major school of Buddhism in Japan. He is important because he represents the ideal of mountain asceticism. He has never circled around the island nor performed the first pilgrimage. Insgesamt umfasst der Shikoku-Pilgerweg 88 Tempel, wovon sich 23 Tempel in der Präfektur Kagawa (Nummern 66-88 auf der Liste) befinden. But, those that walk, whether by design or just by daily exposure, are more involved in the historical roots and religousness of the temples and the trail. A great variety of bus companies work with the temples and inns to offer packaged tours to pilgrims. Although walking the pilgrimage has its own charm and allure, those who are not able to do that, either for health or practical reasons, find the bus tour an amicable alternative. Of the several unlucky ages, though, the most dangerous are 42 for men, 33 for women, and 13 for children of both sexes. Today the typical henro has come to the island for sightseeing reasons. As the Ritsuryō system broke down and began to collapse, people like Gyōgi became more useful, and hence more acceptable, to the government. He preached to the people and used his magical powers to tend their spirital and physical needs. While there is little doubt that En did walk some of these trails and visited and meditated on some of the mountain peaks where temples are currently located, many scholars doubt that Gyōgi ever did. Continuing the tradition of En no Gyōja, he established the precedence of working with the people and living a life outside of the Ritsuryō system. And once this became an established practice, it wasn't long before they started making a pilgrimage to Shikoku to visit the sites that were important during his life. During the span of about four years, Emon circled the island twenty times, each time missing Kūkai by a hair since he was always behind him. There are eighty-eight temples. The Shikoku Henro, or 88 Temple Pilgrimage, is one of the oldest pilgrimages in the world and continues to attract pilgrims from Japan and abroad. In 704 his mother became ill and he returned home to care for her, but transformed their house into a temple. Fourthteen of the current 88 temples changed their locations in the mid-sixteenth century. However, because the Edo bakufu required all daimyō to travel every other year under the Sankin Kotai system, all manner of transportation, including roads and lodging, improved dramatically. In addition, temple records and other published sources indicate that the location of at least fourteen of the current temples has changed since the middle of the sixteenth century.