Not in perfect chronological order of the trip I wanted to publish some B/W images just for the sake of contrast… Yesterday we visited some smaller temples around our base in Matsuyama. They are among the 88 pilgrimage temples which define the Shikoku (that is the island we are on) pilgrimage. This pilgrimage should be done by every Japanese Buddhist at least once in a lifetime (similar to the Hadsch in Islam). The order is not important – nor that the temples are done in one go.

So usually people take some 5-10 temples every year and progress stepwise. The entire round is around 1,600 km, so it’s a long walk…

A typical entrance…

Not so typical (ok, it was the very first time we ever encountered it) was a beggar / poor soul who was extremely gentle

Very unusual as well were the several rows of standing stones

Typical cleaning of hands and drinking of water

We never saw a turtle as roof animal before

Burning incense next to the temple

Another very bizarre creation – dragon + lions

Reciting prayers

And the small backdoor dojo with a shrine behind

the main temple hall

on the way to the next temple we saw these funny little creatures

an imposing entrance gate to the compounds

with even more imposing foundations – more like a fortress

inside the administrative part beautiful stepping stones

and a nice walkway to the small shrine

rock garden in harmony

and the typical mossy pliths

Buddha in the forest

Actually 11 figures…

prayers before the hall. First the bell is risen, then money dropped in the box, then a prayer said (with a cheek you could say you have to attract the gods before they listen…)

Several temple buildings

with big statue and backdrop…

Beautiful patterns emerging

again double walls – this time more like fences

and the final one at the parking lot

Despite of the temples being so nice and beautiful we are glad that we don’t understand all the superstition being around and present. Sometimes it is a grace to not properly understand a language…