Despite what its number might suggest, Temple 58 is only my second temple on the 88-Temple Circuit around Shodoshima Island.
Everything in me knows I should keep moving – after all, I have another six temples to see today alone and I’ve yet to leave the port town of Tonoshō.
And yet I find myself slipping off my backpack anyways, pulling out my sketchbook, and finding a seat on the concrete floor of the bell tower that sits just opposite the temple.
As dark clouds curl across the sky, carrying the rain that will fall later this afternoon, I wonder if I’ll be able to capture the temple’s vivid vermillion woodwork or the mystically twisted branches of the bonsai pine tree standing next to it.
But most of all, what I want to remember is the tiered roof of the temple. As with the Chinese lanterns I confessed my love for while in Kuala Lumpur, I also have a thing for such pagodas, ever since sketching those in Kathmandu’s Durbar Square and a small village temple on the Indonesian island of Nusa Penida.
While it means my first day on the circuit will be longer than it should, I can’t help but drop everything and sketch this temple.
Although I don’t know it right now, here on the floor of the bell tower, Temple 58 is the only temple on the Shodoshima circuit with such a layered roof. The rest I’ll come across will vary tremendously in size and shape – from little one-room buildings in the woods to sprawling complexes with their own lakes – but none will have another beloved tiered roof.
What I also don’t know in the moment of sketching the temple is that eight days from now, when I finally reach the summit of Temple 56 – my last temple on the circuit (yes, it definitely doesn’t go in numerical order) – and begin my descent back into Tonoshō, the first thing I’ll see as I look down at the city will be the roof of Temple 58 – right where I sketched it a week earlier.
Seeing it will remind me, yet again, of how different an experience this circular pilgrimage was from the more linear Camino de Santiago trail I walked last year – that by finishing where you began, your anticipation of reaching the end feels strangely akin to the anticipation of coming home.
It is the same but different – and, hopefully, so are you.
Your sketches are beautiful. I absolutely love Japan and you capture its spirit perfectly:)
Thanks so much, Emily! That means a lot 🙂 Where in Japan have you been before?
“circular pilgrimage…finishing where you began”
How fitting that as you near your return home, you would have this insightful moment. Savor the sweetness!
“It is the same but different – and, hopefully, so are you.”
Thank you, Teresa! Almost as soon as I heard about the 88-Temple Circuit, I started thinking about the differences between linear and circular pilgrimages, and how fitting it would be to do the Shodoshima circuit right before returning home. So those thoughts were on my mind quite a bit as I finished it last week 🙂
PS – I’m so sorry to have not written back to your wonderful email update yet! It was great to get caught up on everyone, though, and I will be writing back as soon as this current trip finishes up!
Beautiful X 100000!
Thank you, Andi!!! Hope you’re doing well!
It’s amazing to see how your sketching talents have become more refined through the three tiered roof sketches above – the same, but different, and so exquisite 🙂
Thanks so much, lovely! It’s funny – I think it’s one of those things you don’t realize is changing until you go back and look at old sketches. It’s much the same with writing, isn’t it? And I’m sure with graphic design work as well 🙂 I’m grateful we’re always growing and refining!
what a different type of spiritual pilgrimmage. How do you find these things?
PS – today I had a brainstorm. I’m SO into architecture, and i love your sketches, and i tried to do it and failed miserably – just couldn’t get into what i was drawing. i want to draw buildings, though. So i’m going to start here in Guernsey.
BabuJ! I am beyond excited to hear you’re going to start sketching Guernsey architecture…you absolutely MUST post the results online, okay? Or at least a big shot capturing your sketching session in action! I so want to come sketch Guernsey with you. Oh, and my travels are entirely directed by Google and Wikitravel. I was researching places to go near Osaka, saw Shodoshima Island on Google Maps, looked it up on Wikitravel and read that there’s a miniature version of the 88-Temple Circuit there – it was as simple as that, really 🙂