The People of Shikoku

Here we look at the people whose activity has made Shikoku what it is today.

Home » About Shikoku » The People of Shikoku

The People of Shikoku

Here we look at the people whose activity has made Shikoku what it is today. We look at both historical and contemporary personages. Some played only local roles, never becoming known outside their island, but many had a national and even a global impact.

People related to the Shikoku Pilgrimage

The long history of the Shikoku Pilgrimage is full of interesting personalities, from the religious ascetics who inspired its origin and the mendicant priests and scholars who established it, the warriors who did their best to wreck its fabric, to the pioneering foreign nationals who brought it to the attention of the West.

Here we look at these pilgrimage-related personages, starting with the legendary Emon Saburo. Going back over 1,200 years, people in every age made contributions to the pilgrimage, and today there are several notable scholars and pilgrim guides who are working to document and promote the Shikoku Henro.

Kukai - Buddhist monk, born in Shikoku, known for founding the Shingon and credited for establishing the Shikoku Pilgrimage

Sendatsu - Guides with experience and knowledge of the pilgrimage. They have walked it at least four times.

Chosokabe Motochika - 16th century warlord, Chosokabe Motochika is famous for taking over Shikoku while burning a large number of temples.

Gyoki - The monk Gyoki Bosatsu, who lived in the 8th century, is said to have established 37 of the 88 Shikoku pilgrimage temples.

Frederick Starr - Frederick Starr was an American academic, anthropologist, and educator who undertook the Shikoku Pilgrimage in 1921, becoming the first recorded foreign pilgrim.

En no Gyoja - En no Gyoja was an ascetic and mystic. He’s traditionally held to be the founder of Shugendo, a religion combining traditional Shinto with imported Buddhism.

David Moreton - An associate professor at Tokushima University, he researches the involvement of foreign nationals in the Shikoku Pilgrimage, and lectures to Japanese audiences.

Oliver Statler - Oliver Statler’s brilliant book “Japanese Pilgrimage” about the Ohenro was influential in introducing the pilgrimage to a Western audience.

Emon Saburo - Considered the first pilgrim to walk the Shikoku Pilgrimage, he was a legendary figure from the early ninth-century, linked to Kukai.

Ippen Shonin - Ippen Shonin of Matsuyama founded a dancing cult that spread through medieval Japan.

Warriors

Like the rest of Japan, Shikoku’s history encompasses centuries of warlordism, with gradual consolidation into feudal domains, leading finally to unification under a national government. Shikoku’s warriors typically combined land-based clans and sea-going clans, the kaizoku, or ‘pirates, whose internecine battles led to involvement with outside forces. The Heike warriors, losers in the Genpei War, famously took refuge in the Iya region.

In more modern times, low-ranking samurai of Kochi played a major role in the Meiji Restoration, while the Akiyama brothers of Matsuyama made a name for themselves in the Russo-Japanese war.

Akiyama Yoshifuru - This son of impoverished samurai revolutionised cavalry warfare in the Meiji period.

Kono Michiari - Kono Michiari, the champion of the Kono clan, lead his small navy in feats of heroism against the Mongol invasion.

Chosokabe Motochika - 16th century warlord, Chosokabe Motochika is famous for taking over Shikoku while burning a large number of temples.

Sakamoto Ryoma - An Edo period samurai from Kochi whose actions precipitated the end of the Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration.

Seki Yukio - The first kamikaze pilot to sink an enemy ship was from Saijo in Ehime.

Tsuruhime - Japan’s best-known female warrior was a priest of Oyamazumi Shrine.

Poets and Writers

As an idyllic backwater, Shikoku has been the stage and inspiration for ground-breaking novelists and poets. From ancient times, haiku poets have found their way here, and Matsuyama became a hotbed of haikuists, which led to a revolution in the poetic form. And one of the world’s first novelists may have been buried at Konpira Shrine.

Masaoka Shiki - This poet from Matsuyama revived haiku as a literary form in the Meiji Period.

Frederick Starr - Frederick Starr was an American academic, anthropologist, and educator who undertook the Shikoku Pilgrimage in 1921, becoming the first recorded foreign pilgrim.

Oliver Statler - Oliver Statler’s brilliant book “Japanese Pilgrimage” about the Ohenro was influential in introducing the pilgrimage to a Western audience.

Yanase Takashi - The creator of superhero Anpanman hailed from Kochi.

Artists and Craftsmen

Shikoku is a treasure trove of high art and architecture. The island’s pilgrimage temples and shrines have their treasure houses packed with religious artefacts and screens dramatically painted by local masters. The galleries and ateliers of modern artists draw visitors from all over the world to Shikoku. But the vernacular crafts are also still practised at a high level today, and you can try your hand at indigo dyeing or blacksmithing under the gentle guidance of an expert practitioner.

Ayano Tsukimi - Ayano Tsukimi makes the inspired scarecrows that populate Nagoro, the Village of Dolls in Tokushima.

Itami Juzo

Hirose Kinzo “Ekin”

Statesmen

Despite its relative isolation, Shikoku has produced numerous talented people who carved out a place in the history of Japan and the wider world.

Kukai - Kukai was a Buddhist monk, born in Shikoku, known for founding the Shingon and credited for establishing the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

Sakamoto Ryoma - An Edo period samurai from Kochi whose actions precipitated the end of the Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration.

Industrialists and Inventors

Surprisingly, Japan’s industrial revolution made an early start in Shikoku, driven by the far-sighted vision of ambitious samurai.

Iwasaki Yataro - Iwasaki Yataro allied with the Meiji Government and formed Mitsubishi.

Hirose Saihei - Hirose Saihei developed Besshi Copper Mine as the overseer of Sumitomo in the Meiji period.

Iba Teigō

Characters and Monsters

Shikoku is home to various cartoon characters, monsters, hobgoblins and other not so real personages.

Anpanman - The national manga hero with roots in Shikoku.

SHIKOKU TOURS

Travel and Adventure