The best trips are often a result of well-planned itineraries tailored to your tastes.
29.11.2024 - 15:01 / lonelyplanet.com
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Nov 26, 2024 • 11 min read
The island region of Shikoku is a collective example of the bounty that comes from an attuned approach to nature. Since ancient times, Shikoku’s abundant water sources have created, shaped and sustained its lush landscapes and traditional industries, giving rise to a reflective culture and cuisine.
Guided by water and an unequivocal understanding of terroir, some of Japan’s most spectacular landscapes and intangible cultural practices are preserved here in a meaningful ode to the past and the inherent value they hold for the future.
Whether to drink, bathe in or create with, we’ll explore how Shikoku’s four prefectures – Ehime, Tokushima, Kōchi and Kagawa – continue to honor their blessings of water.
The Shikoku pilgimage, an ancient route connecting 88 Buddhist temples, is a built-in introduction to Shikoku’s varied waterscapes.
Starting at Temple 1 (Ryōzen-ji) in Tokushima prefecture and ending at Temple 88 (Ōkubo-ji) in Kagawa prefecture, the route takes pilgrims (Ohenro-san) on an epic 700-mile circumnavigation of the entire island. From the wild sea spray of the Muroto cape of Kōchi prefecture to the serene views of the island-filled Seto Inland Sea in Imabari of Ehime prefecture, the trail provides both pumping surf coast and river settings calm enough to meditate in.
Said to be following in the footsteps of the great Kōbō Daishi (Kūkai), the founder of the pilgrimage and the Shingon Sect of Buddhism in Japan, the journey is traditionally made on foot, taking an average of 40-50 days (15 miles per day).
However, given the distance, many henro complete the trail over several trips or use other means of transportation, such as bicycle, bus or car, the latter reducing the time required to just 10 days. Access to some of the more remote mountain temples has been made much easier, thanks to modern-day cable cars and ropeways.
When 80 percent of sake is water, a city dubbed the “spring water capital of Japan” couldn’t be more serendipitously poised for sake production. In Ehime’s Saijō city, an incredible 90 thousand tons of natural spring water spouts daily from around 3,000 self-priming wells called Uchinuki.
The water originates on nearby Mt Ishizuchi, western Japan’s highest peak, descending into the Kamo River and seeping into the groundwater, where a shallow layer of impenetrable bedrock causes the water to pool under pressure just below the earth’s surface. It is said to only take a hole in the ground for the bubbling waters to spring forth, and hence the name Uchinuki, meaning to “punch through.”
Named after the mountain from where the city’s famous waters derive, Ishizuchi Shuzō Corporation, a family-oriented sake brewery founded in 1920, sources the water for
The best trips are often a result of well-planned itineraries tailored to your tastes.
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