12/20/2004

Shikoku (四国) is an oft-forgotten island in Japan. The smallest of Japan’s Big 4, it lies to the south of Honshu. The island remains a rural backwater with few must-see attractions, but particularly the mountainous inner regions offer some good hiking and a glimpse of the elusive Real Japan.

Regions

Shikoku literally means “four lands”, and it indeed consists of four prefectures, conveniently arranged around the compass points. Each prefecture also has an old provincial name, still often found in place names and listed in parenthesis below.

• Ehime (Iyo) — to the west
• Kagawa (Sanuki) — to the north
• Kochi (Tosa) — to the south, home of the actress, Ryoko Hirosue, known abroad for her turn alongside Jean Reno in the 2001 movie Wasabi.
• Tokushima (Awa) — to the east

Cities

• Takamatsu — the largest city in Shikoku
• Matsuyama — better known for neighboring Dogo Onsen
• Tokushima — home of the Awa Odori festival in August
• Uwajima — (barely) on the tourist map due to an interesting fertility shrine and wrestling bulls

Other destinations

• Cape Ashizuri — a scenic cape at the southernmost point of Shikoku
• Dogo Onsen — Japan’s oldest hot spring
• Iya Valley — a remote but beautiful mountain valley
• Kotohira — the site of the Kompira-san shrine
• Mount Ishizuchi — the tallest peak in Shikoku

Generalities

Shikoku is a primarily agricultural island, renowned for its citrus fruits.

Talk

Shikoku is far enough off the beaten track that some Japanese ability, while not absolutely necessary, will come in handy. Some of Shikoku’s dialects, notably Tosa-ben spoken in Kochi, are famously incomprehensible to outsiders.

Getting there

• By plane

  Prefectural capitals Takamatsu, Matsuyama, Kochi and Tokushima all have small regional airports. Takamatsu fields a few flights a week to Seoul, but for any other international destinations, you will have to connect via Tokyo or Kansai.

• By train

  Shikoku is not connected to the Shinkansen network, but there are frequent connections from Okayama on Honshu to Takamatsu and from there on throughout the island.

• By bus

  If coming from Kansai or eastern parts of Japan, buses through Awaji Island are the fastest way of getting to Shikoku.

Get around

• By train

  The JR train network connects the larger towns together fairly well, but regular trains are slow and expresses are expensive. The main lines are:

  • JR Yosan Line (予讃線) on the west coast, from Okayama to Takamatsu and Uwajima via Matsuyama
  • JR Dosan Line (土讃線) across the center of the island, from Okayama and Takamatsu to Kubokawa via the Oboke gorge (near Iya Valley) and Kochi
  • JR Kōtoku Line (高徳線) on the east coast, from Takamatsu to Tokushima

  There are some other minor lines with infrequent trains. Some parts of the JR network, notably the southern segment from Kubokawa to Sukumo, have been split off to the private Tosa Kuroshio Railway company.

• By bus

  Buses fill in the gaps in the train network and are the only means of transport in areas like Cape Ashizuri and the Iya Valley. Schedules are sparse and prices are high.

• On foot

  Serious pilgrims may choose to complete the 88 Temple Circuit (see Do) on foot.

Do

Shikoku is known for the 88 Temple Pilgrimage (八十八ヶ所巡り hachijūhakkasho-meguri), a circuit around the entire island through 88 temples and across 1,647 kilometers, plus an optional 20 “unnumbered” (番外 bangai) temples. All the temples are said to have been founded by monk and scholar Kūkai (空海), better known by his posthumous title Kōbō Daishi (弘法大師), who among his many achievements is said to have created the kana syllabary, brought the tantric teachings of Esoteric Buddhism from China, developed it into the uniquely Japanese Shingon sect and founded Shingon’s headquarters on Mount Koya near Osaka.

While most modern-day pilgrims (an estimated 100,000 yearly) travel by bus, a minority still set out the old-fashioned way on foot, a journey which takes about 60 days to complete. Pilgrims, known as o-henro-san (お遍路さん) in Japanese, can be spotted in the temples and roadsides of Shikoku clad in a white jacket emblazoned with the characters Dōgyō Ninin (同行二人), meaning “two traveling together” — the other being the spirit of Kobo Daishi. Most (but not all) temples offer basic but affordable lodging for pilgrims.

It is traditional to prepare by visiting Mount Koya, but the route itself starts at Ryōzenji, near Tokushima, and you also have to return here in order to complete your pilgrimage.

(Source: Wikitravel)