Sasaguri 88-temple pilgrimage
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霊場開基・尼僧慈忍祈祷の地

Sasaguri 88-temple pilgrimage

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In 1835, the nun Jiin secluded herself at this Fudō Waterfall and prayed for the cessation of an epidemic, which became the impetus for the establishment of the Shinokuma Shikoku Eighty-Eight Sacred Sites pilgrimage.

Shionokuri Fudo Waterfall is considered the birthplace of the Shionokuri Shikoku Sacred Sites pilgrimage.

In 1835, a nun named Jinin, returning from a pilgrimage to the eighty-eight sacred temples of Shikoku, stopped in Shionokuri village and found it suffering from epidemic disease and famine.

Jinin retreated to Shionokuri Fudo Waterfall and devoted herself to earnest prayer, seeking salvation from Kobo Daishi (Kukai), the founder of Shingon Buddhism, to end the plague and restore peace to the village.

Her prayers were answered, and the village was delivered from disease and restored to prosperity, as the story tells.

Following Jinin's wishes, an elder named Fujiki Tosuke, together with local volunteers, resolved to establish eighty-eight sacred sites throughout Shionokuri village as a holy place where Kobo Daishi's divine grace had been proven.

Though Jinin herself passed away before her mission was complete, sand from the original temples in Shikoku was later brought back, and eighty-eight stone Buddhist statues were enshrined at various locations throughout the village, formally establishing the Shionokuri Shikoku Sacred Sites pilgrimage.

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