Kumano Kodō Day 3 con’t: Becoming Dual Pilgrims and a Grand Shrine’s Quiet Mystery

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And now the conclusion of our third day on the Kumano Kodō.  The first part can be found here: .

Meeting Freddy Again for the First Time

Stopping for lunch at a waystation, we discovered we are making surprisingly good time.  Opening our bento boxes, Freddy asks to sit with us. He remembered seeing us on the bus the first day .  Freddy is a Dane on break from his university study abroad experience in Tokyo.  He is more of a pure pilgrim and will walk every mile of the Kumano Kodo, even the PRWs (Pointless Road Walks) that Suzanne has used her planning superpowers to avoid.  But, he is not a pure pure pilgrim, though, as he is also using the luggage transfer service.  

Surprise: a Torii Gate in the forest.

A slight change we made for this pilgrimage was to be intentional about spending time alone in our afternoons.  Maybe to be alone in our thoughts, get lost in a podcast or book, or write a Haiku. I shared mine in the last blog , and here is Suzanne’s:

Suzanne’s Haiku 

Snow falling in the woods

Sunlight catching snow sparkles

Glorious silence

Walking Toward What is Next

Walking alone, I reflect on the question I brought to this walk, about what comes after we retire.  On the Portuguese Camino , I contemplated the possibility of retirement a month out from turning 65.  Now, well into that age, I think I feel released from the mission organization we currently serve, but am I ready for full retirement?  

Does this lead to the next part of my journey?

“Behold, I am doing a new thing” (Isa 43:19) I heard last summer.  Don’t try to recreate your previous experience. I am doing something different. You’re a different person, this will be a different Way .  So I wonder, what will this new thing in retirement be that I’m not supposed to try to recreate? 

From the way station where we found Freddy, there is one more 1000 ft rise.  Since mid-morning, its been mostly a 7 mile descent, a descent that has caused Suzanne’s right knee to start talking to her (it’s tired of compensating for the sprained ankle she came into the Kumano Kodo with). 

The trail turns ferny

One last sub-shrine before we reach the Grand Shrine. See the Shide – the zigzag-shaped paper streamers that demarcate holy space.  

Feeling Little at the Kumano Hongu Taisha Grand Shrine

We limp into the Kumano Hongu Taisha Grand Shrine (Suzanne literally) a full two hours before it closes.  That means we’ve done 12 miles in 7 hours, with over 4000 ft in elevation gain/loss. For us old folk, that’s pretty good.

Torri Gate Entrance to Kumano Hongu Taisha Grand Shrine

The main deity of this Shinto Shrine is Kumano Gongen, who is believed to be the manifestation of The Buddha in the form of an indigenous kami or spirit-entity who has come to guide the people to salvation.  I’m not sure what I feel, or am supposed to feel, at the shrine, but I don’t feel much. We studied up on how to approach the different kami of the Grand Shrine, and the correct order to honor them.  People come in waves; sometimes, it’s crowded, and minutes later, it’s completely empty. 

This signboard helps us know the order in which to visit the five shrines.

Shrine of the Kumano Gongen, the first one we “visit”.

I’m used to feeling something at these holy places I have visited, even those outside my faith, be it mosques, a Hindi Mandir, Ashrams, Buddhist Temples, or even any of the 99 fetishes of the village we lived near in Ghana. But here, standing in the courtyard of the Grand Shrine, its like my sacred Geiger counter isn’t registering anything.  Which feels dissonant for a GRAND Shrine.  In anyone’s faith journey, there are times when God feels distant, like their prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, but this is different.  It feels municipal, like I’m visiting city hall or a library, praying as I have at the lesser shrines, to the part of the God I know who is worshipped here, but I feel is a profound absence, as if there was some sort of dampening field.      

Last of the shrines we “visit”.

We see Freddy at the stamp station, and as I walk up I say, “You can leave the stamp out.” It’s a bit of a hassle to take it out and then put back the stamp and ink pad each time, and I’m trying to save him the effort. He grins and we chat about where we’re each staying tonight – not the same place. 

the small shrine stamp for our books.

We chat for a while, and then Suzanne and I leave to find the Shrine shop, for our granddaughter’s stamp book or “goshuincho.”  She already has two “goshuin,” or hand-painted shrine stamps unique to the location, and on this pilgrimage, we will collect more of these stamps for her.

The Shrine’s hand-painted stamp for our granddaughter’s stamp book.

Becoming Dual Pilgrims at the Kumano Hongu Heritage Centre 

Flag lined pathway to the Kumano Hongu Heritage Centre 

Now, it’s a long walk, especially for Suzanne, down the flag-lined stairs to the Kumano Hongu Heritage Centre.  For some reason, going down hurts her more than walking evenly or even going up – something about her knee compensating for her sprained ankle over these many miles. She’s really hobbling now.

Welcomed by a way marker for The Camino de Santiago!

At the Heritage Centre, we looked around the exhibit hall until we locate the Dual Pilgrim counter. After filling out the application paperwork, we present our Portuguese Camino Compostela and  Kumano Kodō stamp book. The staff, in a very Japanese way, carefully examined both, verifying our Camino completion and that we had the necessary stamps of the pilgrimage. She asked us to compare our experiences.  I could see Suzanne starting to get emotional, but I thought the wet eyes were from knee pain. The staffperson takes our stamp books and, with a bit of flare and a muffled thud, adds one final stamp to show that we had “completed” the pilgrimage – in fact, we’ll spend two more days walking and visiting other portions of the Kumano Kodo.

“Congratulations,” she says handing them back.  “You are Dual Pilgrims!”  I look over at Suzanne, smiling.  Her eyes have really teared up now, and I start feeling emotional too.  “We did it,” she says.  “I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to finish it,” she sobs.  “We actually did it!”

Dual Pilgrims

It is official! We’re Dual Pilgrims!

We’re handed a wooden lapel pin, a certificate, and some other materials, and then she takes our picture for their website. Then, the newest Dual Pilgrims visit the largest Torii Gate in the world and catch a bus to one of the nearby onsen town hotels to soak in its healing waters and hope we may be granted one more day of hiking. 

This is the largest torii shrine gate in the world: 111 ft tall and 137 ft wide (33.9 meters tall and 42 meters wide)

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