{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}

--BOOKS & PAPERS ABOUT THE PILGRIMAGE--

-VIDEOS-

Walking With Kukai: A Pilgrimage In Japan.. A video about the henro michi available at the Dutch Buddhist Broadcast Foundation website. From the website: "Documentary about the Kukai Pilgrimage. Each year, tens of thousands of people follow the route plotted out by the buddhist monk Kukai centuries ago. By car, by foot, in a bus or on a bicycle. Despite heat, wind, rain and exhaust fumes. What keeps them going? We meet the modern Pilgrim."

ARUKIHENRO: Walking Pilgrims in Shikoku, Japan. Devout hikers or adventurers on a quest for themselves? Tommi Mendel spent 9 months on the henro trail interviewing walking henro and has produced this ethnographic documentary film about the pilgrimage. The film has ben screened at several international ethnographic film festivals around the world. It highlights the reasons and motivations of today's walking pilgrims, as well as their quest for personal change along the 88 Temples' Pilgrimage. Available for purchase at his web site. Tiger Toda Productions.

88 — pilgrimage in japanese Gerald Koll put together this film documenting his trip aroung the henro trail in 2008. I'll let him describe how it came about: "I am not a spiritual person. I don't believe in metaphysical things very much. Neither on the Spanish Camino nor in the Japanese pilgrimage. But I am interested in this kind of culture and the people. So I have a distance. A distance to myself too. Many documentaries present the nice parts of pilgrimages. Many documentaries present the beautiful sights of Japan. There are enough of this kind of movies. I was annoyed by the typical drama in three steps of "expectation," "suffering," and "happy ending." In 88 — pilgrimage in japanese I tried to find a different way: I tried to be honest; honest with my feelings and with myself in the double-role as a pilgrim and as medium. I wanted to be penetrated by the culture and the spirits. I wanted to be helpless. I wanted to be alone to cross the boundaries to the Japanese people, the pilgrims, the state of mind of a pilgrim. So I decided to do this pilgrimage on my own. Without anybody, without cameraman, assistant or whatever. It was worth it. I wanted to sink in foreigness. And I did." Available for purchace at Gerald's web site.

• Between Two Worlds: A Japanese Pilgrimage. Created by the American documentary makers, Joanne Hershfield and Susan Caperna Lloyd. According to the description on YouTube, "In 1992 the two film makers headed out to the Japanese island of Shikoku just off the south coast of the main island to document an ancient Buddhist pilgrimage. The pilgrimage known as the Shikoku Buddhist pilgrimage follows the path of enlightenment for Kobo Daish, a local Bodhisattva. In doing so pilgrims visit 88 temples and shrines located around the island, which can take up to two months to complete by foot. The film makers looked to document the modern pilgrimage, the pilgrims reason for participating in the journey and what they hoped to receive from the journey. Joanne and Susan also observe the effects of modern Japanese society on the pilgrimage."
  
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
  • Part 4

• Journeys In Japan: Ohenro Shikoku Pilgrimage. A 4-part series broadcast by NHK in early 2012 following a non-Japanese henro around the island. Each episode is about 50 minutes in length, but you may have to download it to watch anything past the first 15 minutes?.
  
  • Tokushima Prefecture
  • Kōchi Prefecture
  • Ehime Prefecture
  • Kagawa Prefecture

    (These links are to files in DropBox and come from David Moreton's website; www.davidmoreton.com. They can be watched online, but if downloaded note that each file is several hundred MB in size.)

• Journeys In Japan: An NHK Special Edition—Ohenro Shikoku Pilgrimage. A 49 minute summary of the 4-part series that NHK broadcast in early 2012.
  YouTube; 49 minutes

• Jeff Martin has a link to another English language video about the pilgrimage on his web site, Full Henro.

  Pilgrimage to the 88 Temples of Shikoku Island: "Written, narrated, and directed by renowned Japan scholar Oliver Statler, this 1973 film looks like it might have been filmed at the turn of the century, though the high contrast and lack of color may simply be the effects of aging. The focus here is more on the ritual of the pilgrimage, showing what pilgrims do when they visit temples."

• The Buddhist Way of Life: Shingon Buddhism. Bishop Taisen Miyata, author of the temple guidebook A Henro Pilgrimage Guide to the 88 Temples of Shikoku Island, Japan, talks about the Shikoku henro michii in this video on Dharmanet.org. (When i try to watch it, the audio drops out after 5 minutes, but i'll leave this link in case they fix it.)

• Shikoku Pilgrimage: 88 Temple Pilgrimage Tour. Helan Garan gave a slideshow talk to the Sierra Club in New York in June 2009 about her walk around the henro trail. The talk is split into three videos here and can be found amongst the thumbnails on the right side of the screen.

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