"My Husband. The Day He Was Tested by Eighty-Eight Statues" #68
"I'm going on a little pilgrimage."
That's what my husband said as he headed for Mount Takao.
I thought it would be a casual local pilgrimage, but what awaited him were two climbs and descents, and eighty-eight Kobo Daishi statues whose very numbering was enough to confuse anyone.
June 13th (A sunny day in the middle of the rainy season)
In high spirits due to the rare blue sky, my husband headed to Mount Takao in the morning.
His goal, he said, was not mountain climbing, but the "Mount Takao Eighty-Eight Daishi Pilgrimage."
What's more, he planned to do it before a farewell party starting that evening.
Most people would take a nap before a drinking party, but in my husband's circle, a pilgrimage is the task assigned before a banquet.
It's a very healthy, yet very grueling appetizer.
On Mount Takao, stone statues wearing red hats are placed here and there.
My husband had noticed them before, but he apparently didn't know they were part of an eighty-eight-statue pilgrimage created in the Meiji era.
A high-ranking priest from Yakuo-in Temple, who had visited the eighty-eight temples of Shikoku, brought back soil from each location and placed a stone statue of Kobo Daishi on top of it.
It seems the system is designed so that if you visit them on Mount Takao, you receive the same blessings as if you had traveled through Shikoku.
My husband was deeply impressed when he told me this.
"They really thought it through. And it's amazing that they actually did it,"
he said repeatedly.
Indeed, the idea of bringing blessings closer to home is bold.
However, it's not a free handout. To visit all eighty-eight statues, you have to climb up and down Mount Takao twice.
Happiness is distributed, but it requires a corresponding amount of leg strength from the recipient.
The world of gods and Buddhas is quite firm in its requirements.
Furthermore, the locations of the stone statues are ambiguous on the map.
They aren't lined up in numerical order; there are duplicate numbers, and some numbers can't be found at all.
My husband said it was a "psychological battle."
I thought a pilgrimage was about looking into one's own heart, but I never expected to end up doubting the organizers themselves, wondering, "Are there really eighty-eight of these?"
It is an experiential form of entertainment that requires not only faith but also powers of observation and deduction.
Even so, when he finished visiting the very last statue, my husband seemed genuinely happy.
Although he spoke with a face that showed he had exhausted both his physical and mental strength, his voice was strangely buoyant.
Watching his face, I felt a little envious.
In a daily life where we only worry about efficiency and finding the right answers, searching for stone statues without knowing if there's any meaning to it, sweating, and finally tasting a pure sense of accomplishment.
Perhaps such time is unexpectedly luxurious.
After the pilgrimage, he washed away his sweat at the Mount Takao hot spring and headed to the farewell party.
The guest of honor, Momoe-san, is entering her second round of a "double-cropping" life, living in a mountain hut in the summer and in the lowlands in the winter.
Knowing the hardships she has experienced once, she is returning to the same mountain again.
My husband was once again impressed by the strength of her resolve.
Perhaps this pilgrimage was a small ritual for Momoe-san, who is about to return to the mountains.
Before leaving the convenient, digital lowlands to enter an analog life of facing the body and the weather, everyone walks, gets lost, and prays for blessings together.
It's a little clumsy, but very human.
I feel that the sense of accomplishment my husband brought back will also quietly support Momoe-san's new mountain life somewhere.
Next time I see a red hat, I think I'll stop for a moment, too.
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※ This essay is structured as follows:
▪️Main Story: There are 3 patterns.
・Text Version
・Comic Version: Created by Nobu-san (NotebookLM)
Shojo Manga Style Shonen Manga Style
▪️Commentary: Nobu-san provides a fun and interesting explanation.
▪️Special Edition: A long version that reconstructs the main story into a feature-length piece.
※ The special edition is paid content. (*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)⁾⁾⁾