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The shrine of Konpira, god of seafarers. For centuries sailors who could not make the climb sent offerings by proxy, and ships still hang votive plaques here. Seven hundred and eighty-five steps to the main hall; 1,368 to the inner shrine.
Seven hundred and eighty-five steps, and dogs sent up them on their owners’ behalf
Konpira-san sits on a mountainside and the main shrine is 785 steps up, the inner shrine 1,368. It is the head shrine of the god of seafarers, and for centuries a Konpira pilgrimage was the one journey ordinary people were permitted, sometimes made by a dog sent with the money instead.
Kotohira-gu is the head shrine of Konpira, the deity sailors pray to. Seven hundred and eighty-five stone steps to the main hall, 1,368 to the inner shrine. For those who could not make the climb there was a substitute: you sent your dog.
Worshipped as Konpira, protector of seafarers
Second only to Ise in popularity
A purse, a note, and strangers along the road
Japan’s oldest surviving kabuki playhouse
Climb to the main hall, then go into Kanamaruza and under the stage. Almost nobody does the second part.
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~3hSeventy-five hectares, sixteen ponds, thirteen landscaped hills and Mount Shiun standing behind it as borrowed scenery.
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Eat · ~1.5hKagawa eats more udon per head than anywhere in Japan.
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See · ~7hA copper-smelting island turned over to contemporary art from the 1990s: Tadao Ando concrete sunk into the hillside so nothing breaks the skyline, a Kusama pumpkin on the jetty, and old houses converted one at a time in Honmura..
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