Sacred and Pilgrimage Sites

The sacred and pilgrimage sites in Japan have played important roles in shaping the religious aspects of the culture. The countryside of the nation is 80 percent mountainous and has inspired religious practices involving trekking through the hilly terrain. People of the past saw mountains as deities and created shrines that are said to enshrine their spirit. Later on when Buddhism was introduced to Japan the belief started to meld together to create another perspective on the spirits in the country.

There are two types of pilgrimages you can experience. The first is reijo, which goes to sacred sites like the Kumano route of the Kii Peninsula. It visits the Three Grand Shrines that are connected by the hiking trails. The other one is junrei, which is a circuit type of pilgrimage. A good example is the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage route where travelers go to 88 individual temples.

The original purpose of these pilgrimages was to offer prayers to the many deities, bodhisattvas and Buddha(s). Hiking through the mountains to reach the religious sites invoke a sense of harmony with the surrounding nature and thus bringing you closer to the deities residing in the land. Today you can see monks dressed in white garbs trekking through the trails.