Shikoku Henro

Shikoku Henro is the Buddhist pilgrimage of Japan's island of Shikoku, a circuit of eighty-eight temples linked to the monk Kūkai, posthumously called Kōbō Daishi, who was born at Zentsū-ji in 774 and founded the esoteric Shingon school after returning from study in Tang China. Popular tradition holds that he visited or founded many of the temples himself.

The route winds through Shikoku, and its stages mirror the path to enlightenment. Pilgrims, known as henro, walk in white robes with sedge hats and staffs, chanting the Heart Sutra at each temple, while local people give them alms along the way.

Monks from Mount Kōya spread the Kōbō Daishi cult and its legends, and under the Edo shogunate pilgrims travelled with permits and temple-stamp books. By the eighteenth century smaller copies of the circuit had appeared across Japan.