The Pink Pilgrim
“Jeeze. Oh, Pete!”
This is a common American Midwest phrase, and because we’re two American Midwesteners, it came out of my mouth this morning while trying to get ready to go.
Now, since “Jizo” is a common word in Japan, Matt’s mind lit up, he ran with it, and “Jizo Pete” was born.
Jizo is a Japanese entity who has attained enlightenment, but postpones Buddhahood to help others. Jizo statues can be seen throughout the 88 temple pilgrimage. They come in all shapes and sizes. The rest of our walk to Temple 31 (Chikurin-ji) was spent imagining stories about our hero Jizo Pete and how he helps characters like Angry Ant, Sad Firefly and Sleepy Turtle. Our Jizo Pete shows them how to find confidence in themselves and solutions to their problems. What do you think, a children’s book in the making?
The uphill walk to Temple 31 ends at a beautiful botanical garden, in fact the path goes right through the garden and directly to the outskirts of the temple. As the late morning sun began to break through the clouds the temple grounds came to life. A red pagoda popped in the foreground and evaporating water steamed off building roof tops.
Making our way through the complex we noticed dozens of pairs of shoes lining the main temple hall. A group of senior females sat inside listening intently to a monk. Next to the monk stood a large, round, pink, animated character. “How cute” were my thoughts, the temple has a mascot. As the group began to move, so did the pink being. They all grabbed their shoes and made their way down the ramp. The Pink Pilgrim posed for pictures. Everyone contributed to the festival atmosphere.
For us, it was an o-settai extravaganza. One of the ladies with Pink Pilgrim gifted us with an umbrella which she had hand-written the heart sutra on, no simple task. There was a pin from the temple monk, two loaves of bread and the Pink Pilgrim herself gave us a towel and some sweets. She told us her name Kamakura-san. At 65 years old, she was full of kindness and enthusiasm. Her lack of English did not dissuade her from asking us question after question.
Before leaving the vast temple grounds we ran into Kamakura-san two more times. The first time she invited us to stay at her home for the evening, and the second time she insisted on it. She told us to cancel whatever plans we had made for the evening and she would meet us at the end of the day and take us to her house.
Having planned a rather ambitious day of 28km our two hour temple experience had put us behind. We passed a quaint pond on the way to Temple 32 (Zenjibu-ji) and a not so quaint steep accent through bamboo and wet leaves. At the main hall we got an impromptu lesson from a senior lady about the etiquette of lighting candles. She explained that it was incorrect protocol to light your candle from an already existing flame. Lighting from each others flame however is acceptable. From what we could understand, igniting from others candles takes away the luck or wishes of others. To make sure we were comprehending her lesson, our candle sensei put both her hands above her head and asked “OK?” Nodding we could only see her eyes smile, as her mouth was covered over with a mask. The descent from the temple left us disoriented & at a loss of direction. A kind lady in her car offered us o-settai of money, 2 oranges, and thankfully directions.
Temple 33 (Sekkei-ji) offers a pilgrim the only “official” walking cheat. Pilgrims are allowed to take a short ferry crossing to this temple. Of course we missed the free 10 minute ride by about 4 minutes. Waiting another 50 minutes for the next crossing was our only choice.
We made it to the temple office 20 minutes before closing. There we bought some amazing tasting tomatoes and called our Pink Pilgrim, Kamakura-san. Her friend answered the phone and we spent the next several minutes both communicating in a language unfamiliar to us. Since we had told Kamakura-san that our meeting place would be Temple 34 (Tanema-ji), we needed to let her friend know we had not made it that far. Hanging up the phone we could only hope our message was clear. Minutes later Kamakura-sans smiling face bounded up the temple stairs, apologizing for her tardiness.
The next 90 minutes were a car ride in mystery. Only the most elementary of conversation could be made. We had no clue where we were going. We drove the exact path we spent the entire day walking, right past Temple 31 where we met her, and right past the exact street where Jizo Pete was envisioned. Our first stop was a house where we picked up her friend who carried a large pot of curry into the vehicle. Next stop a grocery store where two huge bags were filled with sashimi, salad and breakfast items for the following morning. Finally we pulled into the driveway of a large two story building tucked into a mountainside with views of the ocean. One of the eighteen rooms in the house would be ours. Inside the home was a potpourri of decor, style and atmosphere. There was even a small theatre for Katana (Japanese sword) presentations and Noh (classical Japanese dance-drama) performances.
After our tour, the ladies scurried into the kitchen giggling to each other and prepared our meal of sashimi, salad and curry. They joined us only after all the dishes were on the table.
After dinner we called my friend Noriko to help us with some translating. Kamakura-san gave Noriko a lively summation of who she was. We learned that our hostess has been volunteering as the pink pilgrim mascot for years. She has a CD and is currently writing a book. The city of Kochi adopted the mascot as their own. When we met her group at Temple 31 they had just finished a segment (or maybe it was all) of the temples including Koya-san (the center of Shingon Buddhism). She told Noriko that when she met us she felt an instant connection and that is why she invited us to her home.
While Matt had took his o-furo (bath) Kamakura-san, her friend and I sat outside on the patio. She spoke breathlessly about her life. In return I told her about ours, however the confidence to continue knowing others could not understand, stopped my stories short.
The effort that our hostesses put out for us is enviable, admirable and mysterious. I have been lucky to experience Japanese hospitality many times. It is always genuine and beautiful, but the energy of this experience was a first. They wanted nothing in return.
The standout lessons from this whirlwind experience are effort and confidence.
April 24, 2016 - Temples 31, 32 & 33
