Though he's the main deity of just one of the 88 Temples of the Henro (T31, Chikurin-ji), Mañjusrī, or Monju-sama in Japan, is one of the most important deities in Buddhism. Kūkai powerfully invokes the deity in the opening line of his Secret Key to the Heart Sutra: “The sharp sword of Mañjusrī cuts off all mental proliferation.”  To put it even more simply, Mañjusrī’s wisdom cuts the bullshit. 

Like the Henro temples, the Bekkaku also feature Goeika, temple songs which poetically combine the place and scenery of temples with the experience of pilgrims and the teachings of Buddhism.

The Iroha Uta, attributed to Kobo Daishi Kukai, is one of Japan's most famous poems. Renowned for its use of each character of the Japanese hiragana syllabary, for centuries it was used as a way of ordering the characters, similar to the alphabet. Its lines contain a deep reflection on the Buddhist teaching of impermanence.

Bishamonten (Sanskrit"Vaiśravaṇa") has been one of Japan's most popular deities since Buddhism's arrival in the 6th century. Dressed in a warrior's armor, he holds a spear in his right hand and a Stupa or "Treasure Tower" in his left.

An image of Kannon from the Chichibu Kannon Pilgrimage Route Kanzeon (more commonly Kannon), the Bodhisattva of Compassion, is the most-represented Buddha on the Henro, enshrined as the main deity at 29 of the pilgrimage's 88 main temples (over a third!). The Bodhisattva's name as rendered into Sino-Japanese means "The Perceiver of the World's Sounds," referring to the way the Bodhisattva lends a compassionate ear to us suffering in samsara. Whenever I hear this, I think of

He sits or stands on a boulder surrounded by an aureole of flame. His name, “Fudō,” simply means “Unmoved.” 

The first deity we encounter on the pilgrimage is the one who started it all.

Last year, I put together an English shidai, a liturgical manual, and accompanying video to help non-Japanese people get a handle on the...

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You walk through the gate and approach the main hall of a temple or shrine. Standing between you and the Buddha or Kami you see the...

We live in an age where almost the entire corpus of Buddhist literature is at our fingertips and much is translated into our native...

Researching the Shikoku Henro seems like an endless collection of lists, with all the temple names and deities, the costume elements, the...

I caught the earliest train to Tatsue Station after a somewhat sleepless night. The dry autumn air parched my eyes, enhancing the...