ix months was 2500 each day; at this rate the number for
the year is nearly 900,000. The highest for a single day was over
12,000. These figures were given me by the chief official of this
district. The highest mountain in Shikoku, Ishidzuchi San, some six
thousand feet in height, is said to be ascended by ten thousand
pilgrims each summer. These pilgrims eat little or nothing at hotels,
depending rather on what they carry until they return from their
arduous three days' climb; nor do they take any prolonged rest until
they are on the homeward way. The reason for this is that the climb is
supposed to be a test of the heart; if the pilgrim fail to reach the
summit, the inference is that he is at fault, and that the god does
not favor him. They who offer their prayers from the summit are
supposed to be assured of having them answered.

But beside these greater pilgranages to mountain summits and national
shrines, innumerable lesser ones are made. Each district has a more or
less extended circuit of its own. In Shikoku there is a round known as
the "Hachi-Ju-hakka sho mairi," or "The Pilgrimage to the 88 Places,"
supposed to be the round once made by Kobo Daishi (A.D. 774-834), the
founder of the Shinton sect of Buddhism. The number of pilgrims who
make this round is exceedingly large, since it is a favorite circuit
for the people not only of Shikoku, but also of central and western
Japan. Many of the pilgrims wear on the back, just below the neck, a
pair of curious miniature "waraji" or straw sandals, because Kobo
Daishi carried a real pair along with him on his journey. I never go
to Ishite Temple (just out of Matsuyama), one of the eighty-eight
places of the circuit, without seeing some of these pilgrims. But this
must suffice. The pilgrim habit of the Japanese is a strong proof of
widespread religious enthusiasm, and throws much light on the
religious nature of the people. There seems to be reason for thinking
that the custom existed in Japan even before the introduction of
Buddhism. If this is correct, it bears powerful testimony to the
inherently religious nature of the Japanese race.

The charge has been made that these pilgrimages are mere pleasure
excursions. Mr. Lowell says, facetiously, that "They are peripatetic
picnic parties, faintly flavored with piety; just a sufficient
suspicion of it to render them acceptable to the easy-going gods."
Beneath this light alliterative style, which delights the literary
rea