Junrei (巡礼) is the word most commonly used for either of two major types of

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

s in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, in accordance with

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

. These pilgrimages can be made as a visit to a group of

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

shrines A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

, or other holy sites, in a particular order, often in a circuit of 33 or 88 sites. Other pilgrimages may center on a pilgrimage to a single site. One of the most popular pilgrimages for Buddhists in Japan is visiting the 88 temples on

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

. Pilgrimages can be organized by

tour bus A tour bus service is an escorted tour (sometimes a package holiday) or bus service that takes visitors sightseeing, with routes around tourist attractions. Information Double-decker buses and open top buses are commonly used, for providin ...

companies, taking only a couple of weeks to complete, although many pilgrims prefer to take the two- or three-month-long journeys on foot in the traditional manner. Pilgrims on the Shikoku ''junrei'' are referred to as ''henro'' (遍路) and traditionally wear

straw hat A straw hat is a wide-brimmed hat woven out of straw or straw-like synthetic materials. Straw hats are a type of sun hat designed to shade the head and face from direct sunlight, but are also used in fashion as a decorative element or a un ...

s and white clothing.

Traditional observances

There are a number of rules traditionally observed while on a ''junrei''. *Say the name of Kōbō-Daishi following one's devotion it is preceded every thing. (Kōbō-Daishi is

Kūkai Kūkai (; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835Kūkai was born in 774, the 5th year of the Hōki era; his exact date of birth was designated as the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, some 400 years later, by the Shingon sec ...

posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary name given mostly to the notable dead in East Asian culture. It is predominantly practiced in East Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishments or ...

) *Pilgrimage as the ascetic. *Must not kill any living things. *Must not say immoral things to women. *Have some medicines for your unexpected bad condition. *Must not drink any alcohol. *Do not quarrel with your partner. *Do not have a lot of money. *Do not have unnecessary baggage. *Pay attention to your food hygiene. *Go to an inn before it gets dark. *Must not go out of an inn during the night. {{Unreferenced, date=October 2007

References

Bibliography

* Ambros, Barbara (1997)
Liminal journeys: Pilgrimages of noblewomen in mid-Heian Japan
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 24 (3-4), 301-345 * Hoshino, Eiki (1997)
Pilgrimage and peregrination: Contextualizing the Saikoku junrei and the Shikoku henro
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 24 (3-4), 271-299 * MacWilliams, Mark W. (1997)
Temple myths and the popularization of Kannon pilgrimage in Japan: A case study of Ōya-ji on the Bandō Route
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 24 (3-4), 375-411 * Reader, Ian and Swanson, Paul L. (1997)
Editors’ introduction: Pilgrimage in the Japanese religious tradition
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 24 (3-4), 225-270 * Reader, Ian (1997)
Review: Local Histories, Anthropological Interpretations, and the Study of a Japanese Pilgrimage
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 30 (1-2), 119-132 * Reader, Ian (1991). Religion in Contemporary Japan, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press * Watkins, L. (2008)
Japanese travel culture: An investigation of the links between early Japanese pilgrimage and modern Japanese travel behaviour
New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 10 (2), 93-110 Japanese pilgrimages Buddhism in Japan Shinto in Japan ja:巡礼