KKyoto

Monk Endō leaves Sekizanzen-in at the foot of Mt. Hiei in April 2008 on the 30th of 100 straight days of the 60km Great Circuit of Kyoto, about 830 days into the 1000-day Kaihogyo walking meditation ordeal.

  • January 15, 2025


I was a casual adjunct member of the "obstacle clearers" support group for a while, not a real member, which is VERY serious business. In the previous 100-day set, he would come down the mountain path at 2:45 a.m. walking briskly in his white robe and carrying a lantern, emerging out of the dark like an apparition. Unforgettable. No pics allowed. I took just this one photo in the daytime in the second to last and longest leg of the ordeal as the public circumambulation (京都大巡り) begins.

Only one more ascetic has done the 1000-day ordeal since then.

by KyotoGaijin

4 comments

  3. I’ve hiked with him a couple of times. He has a small temple in Otsu now, and works with a Shiga tour company that makes his experience available to tourists in English via [this tour](https://www.lacbiwa.com/tours/walk-the-sacred-pathway-with-a-marathon-monk-of-mt-hiei/), meaning that as you hike with him, he tells you about his experience and answers questions, all via an interpreter that comes with the tour. (I was hired by the tour company to give feedback on how the tour would feel to foreigners.) He comes across as a remarkably normal dude that you might find next to you at the izakaya, but one that has done remarkable things.

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