A pilgrimage in Japan.
At first sight it looks a little bit odd when we speak about a pilgrimage in Japan, because we do not know of any holy place over there, except perhaps the shrine of the 26 martyrs of Japan in Nagasaki. However, we may know of course that all religions have their holy places and all religions know pilgrimages. The most famous one for a non-Christian religion is of course the pilgrimage to Mecca by Muslims.
For a long time, ever since watching the film “The Seven Samurai”, a classical Japanese film of the 1960’s, I have been interested in Japan. It has been a strong desire of mine to see the rural life, where the farmers cultivate their rice-fields and have their celebrations of rice-festivals. I also started to read the Japanese theology, especially the books of Susaku Endo about Christianity entering into the soul of the Japanese people, ever since the Franciscans and Jesuits entered Japan towards the end of the 16th century, when Japan opened its doors to Western trade.
When I was on my way to Santiago de Compostella, the famous pilgrimage place of St. James, I met a Japanese person, a Buddhist, who told me about a pilgrimage in Japan, called the Henro pilgrimage on the island of Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is a journey, by foot or bus or car, to 88 temples which mainly have been founded by a holy man, Kobo Daishi, towards the end of the 8th century. The number 88 designates the three important years in the life of a Japanese person. The 60th birthday is one of them and so you find many people of 6o years of age who undertake this pilgrimage in order to obtain good health and luck in their remaining years. The journey by foot is only about 1250 kms.
I tried to study some Japanese but did not get very far. Just a few words to ask for the way, to book a night in a hotel, to order some food and things like that. The people of Shikoku do not speak much English either but we could manage somehow, talking with hands and feet, but mainly with the heart and with my little translator, a language computer.
They are kind, these people of Shikoku, quite different from the rest of Japan. This kindness and hospitality has been brought about by the teachings of Kobo Daishi.
The people are very open for dialogue with the Christians because we all try to obtain the same virtues. It was a pity that we did not encounter any Muslim people nor any Hindus.
The conversations at the evening meal were mainly centred round this topic: interfaith dialogue. It made me decide to dedicate more and more of my time to this dialogue in the neighbourhood where I live now, in Enschede.
The pilgrimage was also a great blessing to my self. There are four provinces in Shikoku. Each province has its own theme for this pilgrimage. First of all you start thinking about your own spirituality. You try to discover how your life has been so far, what you have been doing with yourself in relation to others. In the second province you try to live an ascetic life, not in a negative way, but positively speaking you try to obtain a virtuous life by doing good to others, also for example by not complaining when the going is hard, when the mountains are steep, when the rain is pelting down. These things may turn out to be blessings. In the third province you come to enlightenment by accepting what has happened to you in these weeks. I must say: it worked! I felt enlightened. One night I got a very realistic dream in which I saw bishops and people all round one table, together discussing the problems in the Dutch church and they all listened to each other!!!!
I myself left my set ways of life and tried to open up myself more and more to the people around me. When I lost my way in the mountains in a very bad way, I took it with a smile and enjoyed the extra kilometres. And then finally, there is the time which you spend thinking about Nirwana; we can call it heaven after our life on earth but we also may think about heaven on earth in the here and now.
I walked this pilgrimage not as a Buddhist but as a Christian. I prayed in the temples my own prayers and thanked Kobo Daishi for his great example in the same way as I thank so many people around me who are a blessing to me.
It was a hard pilgrimage, both for physical endurance as well as for spiritual enlightenment. I have seen the beauty of Zen-meditation and felt very good with it. There is so much beauty in the Japanese gardens, in the architecture of the houses and temples, in the quiet way of life of openness to each other, of having time for the pilgrim, showing him the way, even when it meant walking half an hour with him to set him on the right path.
I met my Santiago-friend because he saw a program on TV in which I talked with the champion badminton player of Japan. She was being interviewed on this pilgrimage and I happened to come into the picture too. So she interviewed me and it was broadcasted. My friend managed to trace me by making phonecalls to all hotels and temples in that area.
Towards the end of my time in Japan I still got the chance to see Nagasaki; to see the result of the atom bomb and to see the church of the Japanese martyrs and to hear about the life of the “hidden Christians”. This story I also like to share with you, my dear friends in Schiedam.
When the Shogun, who was kind to the Christians in 1600, had died, he was succeeded by somebody who turned against the West and did not want any trade nor any religion from the western countries. He killed many Christians and crucified 26 of them. The missionaries were killed or expelled. Only the Dutch could trade on an artificial island near the coast of Nagasaki. The Christians fled into the mountains or lived on the islands and kept in hiding for 300 years. All that time there were no priests. Instead of the Eucharist they had their own celebrations in secret and gave each other a small piece of paper with a text from the bible instead of the host.
Since about 1900 they are free again to practice their religion. I went to their church in Nagasaki. Every morning there are about 100 people attending Mass and saying the prayers of the church. Everywhere I saw concrete posts in temples and churches with the words: that peace may prevail.
I said special prayers for all of you when I was in a temple which somehow reminded me of the your community in Schiedam. I lit a candle, burned some incense and thanked God for your good efforts to educate your children in the way of Jesus Christ. You have been a great blessing to me. Thank you.
Fr. Ben Engelbertink
O-henro-san
At first sight it looks a little bit odd when we speak about a pilgrimage in Japan, because we do not know of any holy place over there, except perhaps the shrine of the 26 martyrs of Japan in Nagasaki. However, we may know of course that all religions have their holy places and all religions know pilgrimages. The most famous one for a non-Christian religion is of course the pilgrimage to Mecca by Muslims.
For a long time, ever since watching the film “The Seven Samurai”, a classical Japanese film of the 1960’s, I have been interested in Japan. It has been a strong desire of mine to see the rural life, where the farmers cultivate their rice-fields and have their celebrations of rice-festivals. I also started to read the Japanese theology, especially the books of Susaku Endo about Christianity entering into the soul of the Japanese people, ever since the Franciscans and Jesuits entered Japan towards the end of the 16th century, when Japan opened its doors to Western trade.
When I was on my way to Santiago de Compostella, the famous pilgrimage place of St. James, I met a Japanese person, a Buddhist, who told me about a pilgrimage in Japan, called the Henro pilgrimage on the island of Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is a journey, by foot or bus or car, to 88 temples which mainly have been founded by a holy man, Kobo Daishi, towards the end of the 8th century. The number 88 designates the three important years in the life of a Japanese person. The 60th birthday is one of them and so you find many people of 6o years of age who undertake this pilgrimage in order to obtain good health and luck in their remaining years. The journey by foot is only about 1250 kms.
I tried to study some Japanese but did not get very far. Just a few words to ask for the way, to book a night in a hotel, to order some food and things like that. The people of Shikoku do not speak much English either but we could manage somehow, talking with hands and feet, but mainly with the heart and with my little translator, a language computer.
They are kind, these people of Shikoku, quite different from the rest of Japan. This kindness and hospitality has been brought about by the teachings of Kobo Daishi.
The people are very open for dialogue with the Christians because we all try to obtain the same virtues. It was a pity that we did not encounter any Muslim people nor any Hindus.
The conversations at the evening meal were mainly centred round this topic: interfaith dialogue. It made me decide to dedicate more and more of my time to this dialogue in the neighbourhood where I live now, in Enschede.
The pilgrimage was also a great blessing to my self. There are four provinces in Shikoku. Each province has its own theme for this pilgrimage. First of all you start thinking about your own spirituality. You try to discover how your life has been so far, what you have been doing with yourself in relation to others. In the second province you try to live an ascetic life, not in a negative way, but positively speaking you try to obtain a virtuous life by doing good to others, also for example by not complaining when the going is hard, when the mountains are steep, when the rain is pelting down. These things may turn out to be blessings. In the third province you come to enlightenment by accepting what has happened to you in these weeks. I must say: it worked! I felt enlightened. One night I got a very realistic dream in which I saw bishops and people all round one table, together discussing the problems in the Dutch church and they all listened to each other!!!!
I myself left my set ways of life and tried to open up myself more and more to the people around me. When I lost my way in the mountains in a very bad way, I took it with a smile and enjoyed the extra kilometres. And then finally, there is the time which you spend thinking about Nirwana; we can call it heaven after our life on earth but we also may think about heaven on earth in the here and now.
I walked this pilgrimage not as a Buddhist but as a Christian. I prayed in the temples my own prayers and thanked Kobo Daishi for his great example in the same way as I thank so many people around me who are a blessing to me.
It was a hard pilgrimage, both for physical endurance as well as for spiritual enlightenment. I have seen the beauty of Zen-meditation and felt very good with it. There is so much beauty in the Japanese gardens, in the architecture of the houses and temples, in the quiet way of life of openness to each other, of having time for the pilgrim, showing him the way, even when it meant walking half an hour with him to set him on the right path.
I met my Santiago-friend because he saw a program on TV in which I talked with the champion badminton player of Japan. She was being interviewed on this pilgrimage and I happened to come into the picture too. So she interviewed me and it was broadcasted. My friend managed to trace me by making phonecalls to all hotels and temples in that area.
Towards the end of my time in Japan I still got the chance to see Nagasaki; to see the result of the atom bomb and to see the church of the Japanese martyrs and to hear about the life of the “hidden Christians”. This story I also like to share with you, my dear friends in Schiedam.
When the Shogun, who was kind to the Christians in 1600, had died, he was succeeded by somebody who turned against the West and did not want any trade nor any religion from the western countries. He killed many Christians and crucified 26 of them. The missionaries were killed or expelled. Only the Dutch could trade on an artificial island near the coast of Nagasaki. The Christians fled into the mountains or lived on the islands and kept in hiding for 300 years. All that time there were no priests. Instead of the Eucharist they had their own celebrations in secret and gave each other a small piece of paper with a text from the bible instead of the host.
Since about 1900 they are free again to practice their religion. I went to their church in Nagasaki. Every morning there are about 100 people attending Mass and saying the prayers of the church. Everywhere I saw concrete posts in temples and churches with the words: that peace may prevail.
I said special prayers for all of you when I was in a temple which somehow reminded me of the your community in Schiedam. I lit a candle, burned some incense and thanked God for your good efforts to educate your children in the way of Jesus Christ. You have been a great blessing to me. Thank you.
Fr. Ben Engelbertink
O-henro-san
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