{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}

--TEMPLE TRIVIA--

Top 5 Temples in Elevation
According to Taisen Miyata in his book The Henro Pilgrimage Guide to The 88 Temples of Shikoku Island Japan, the temples on the highest mountains are:

1. Unpenji (Temple 66) - 911m/3,060ft
2. Shōsanji (Temple 12 - 800m/2,640ft
3. Yokomineji (Temple 60) - 700m/2,340ft
4. Tairyūji (Temple 21) - 610m/2,000ft
5. Kakurinji (Temple 20) - 550m/1,800ft

If you stop at Mt. Kōya in Wakayama Prefecture before or after you go to Shikoku, the Okunoin (Kōbō Dashi's mausoleum) is located at 900m/2,953ft.

Temple Sectarian Affiliations
All 88 temples are associated with Kōbō Daishi simply by having a Daishidō as one of the two main buildings in the temple complex. However, not all temples belong to the Shingon Buddhist sect. According to Hiroshi Tanaka in his Pilgrim Places: A Study of the Eighty-Eight Sacred Precints of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Japan, official temple affiliation breaks down like this:

• 80 temples belong to the Shingon sect
• 4 belong to the the Tendai sect (Temples 43, 76, 82, and 87)
• 2 belong to the Rinzai Zen sect (Temples 11 and 33)
• 1 belongs to the Ji sect (Temple 78)
• 1 belongs to the Sōtō Zen sect (Temple 15)

Tanaka points out, though, that according to legend Temple 11 was founded as a Shingon temple by Kōbō Daishi but changed affiliation to Rinzai Zen during the Edo Period. Likewise, Temples 33 and 87 changed from the Shingon sect to Rinzai Zen and Tendai respectively sometime during the 17th century. In addition, he points out that since the Ji sect and the Sōtō Zen sects didn't come into existence until the Kamakura Period, both Temples 78 and 15 must have belonged to a different sect when they were founded.

Honzon
Each temple enshrines a deity in its Hondō. While Temple37 enshrines 5 deities, all of the other temples only enshrine one. According to Tanaka, and based on the stamps he received from the temples when he made the pilgrimage, the honzon and the number of temples where they are worshiped are:

According to Taisen Miyata in Part 1 his book The Henro Pilgrimage Guide to The 88 Temples of Shikoku Island Japan, however, the frequency of each honzon is as follows (although i get a different distribution when i add up the honzon as he has them listed for each individual temple in Part 2 of the book):